The Fires of War
by Dalxein
Summary: Sickened by the atrocities they've been forced to commit, two shinobi from secluded villages attempt to create new lives in Konoha. [Indefinite hiatus]
1. In the Fading Twilight

First thing's first. If you honestly need a disclaimer to tell you we don't own this stuff, you need help. This is a fanfic. As with _all_ fanfics, it has copyrighted stuff in it. _Everything_ on this site is copyrighted by someone other than the people who wrote these. Everyone should know this by now.

So, we're going to say this once, and _only once._ We. Don't. Own. Naruto.

Chances are, this chapter will make no sense to you. However, there is method to our madness, and by chapter three we'll explain everything as the story progresses.

Yes, this is a NaruHina, yes we've got OC/Canon character pairings too, and yes we have a firm dislike for Sakura and Neji, but not to the point where we'd screw over our story just to hate on them.

This is officially my first fic. I co-authored another one, but it's not in my name, so I'm not sure if it really counts... Anyway, flame us if you want, but just remember we'll take the reply, put it here, and also post just how badly we burned you for it.

Personally, I try to keep to the canon storyline as much as possible. And we always spell check these before we post them. Don't even try to say shit like 'OMG u n0 spel good LOLZ'. That's the kind of crap we post everywhere just so people can make fun of you. For stuff like Jonin and Chunin, and the bits in Japanese, we spell it how we say it. Jounin and Chuunin. If you've got a problem with that, you can leave now, no hard feelings.

Also, this fic is quite graphic, and we may change it from T to M for blood and gore alone.

* * *

The sounds of screams and carnage filled the night air. The smell of smoke permeated everything, a testament to the abomination taking place. Two shinobi, Kayuu and Ateshi, the children of two villages, warring for centuries, stood side-by-side. They stared, petrified, over a child no more than twelve years old. She was of small build, even for her age, with long silver hair and light blue eyes. She sat huddled in the corner of her ruined home, shaking in fear, tears running freely down her face. 

As this travesty unfolded, a man appeared on one of the walls that still stood behind the shinobi. "What are you doing, Kensukai? Just kill the girl and be done with it!" He said.

Both of the shinobi staring at the girl were waiting for the other to kill her, so that they needn't have her blood on their hands. "No." Ateshi stated, turning to his superior.

The enemy shinobi looked over at him, his face muddled in confusion as the man on the wall jumped down and began yelling, "Are you disobeying a direct order!?"

Ateshi's features darkened. "Yes... I am." He said, and in a blur of motion, brought his hand up, and the man fell forward with an expression of shock on his face, clutching his neck where several darts were protruding. "Hey kid..." He asked, turning back to the child he was ordered to kill. "You don't want to die, do you?"

The girl shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "What are you..." Kayuu asked.

"Then let's go." Ateshi said, stepping towards her, but as he neared the enemy shinobi, turned towards him and asked, "What about you?"

At this, Kayuu stepped towards the girl, wrapped his cloak around her, lifting the young girl into his arms. "Let's go." Kayuu said kindly. They made their way quickly out of the village, going mostly unnoticed amongst the multitude of battles taking place. They ran all night, the girl falling asleep in Kayuu's arms along the way. They entered a forest some time past midnight, and leapt into the branches, quickly making their way through, even as their limbs grew heavy with fatigue. As the first rays of dawn pierced the forest, they stopped near a small stream. Kayuu gently set the girl down in the soft grass, looking in disgust at his blood-covered hands as he did so. He silently stepped into the stream and proceeded to cleanse his hands. As he stepped out, he spoke to no one in particular. "They'll probably never be entirely clean again."

"You're not alone." Ateshi said. He looked at the girl. "What should we do with her?"

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to what I can to secure a future for her after what I've done. It's the least I can do." Kayuu said, his face solemn. "Can you take a watch? I need to recuperate in some shade."

"I'm surprised you trust me enough to do that." Ateshi said.

"You made the same decision I did. To spare the girl. Your village might send out some people to look for you after what you did, and I know that you can't take them on your own." Kayuu explained.

"Yeah...that's true," Ateshi conceded. "I'll wake you in a few hours. After I get some rest, we can talk about what we're going to do." Kayuu walked over to the nearest tree and slumped down, his breathing becoming rhythmic as he fell into a guarded slumber. Ateshi's watch passed without incident, and Kayuu had begun his watch, continuing to sit in his spot in the shade, and he took out a bottle of ink, a brush, and dozens of small notes, and began to write the same thing on each one, infusing each with a small amount of chakra before placing it in a pile next to him.

It was when he was on his thirty-second note that the girl began to stir. He set aside his writing implements aside and knelt next to her. Her eyes opened, and she sat up, examining her new surroundings. Her face melted into a look of inconceivable grief as she recalled the previous night's events, and before she could stop them, tears began flowing down her cheeks, and she let out a choked sob. With a caring look on his face, Kayuu folded his arms around the small girl and pulled her into a gentle embrace, uncaring of the tears soaking into his clothing. "It's okay, little one," he said with a gentle voice, "you have good reason to be sad." Gradually, her tears ceased flowing and her trembling stopped. He looked down into her tear-stained face and said "Come on. Let's get you washed up and get some breakfast." He walked her over to the stream and caught some fish with his kunai as the girl washed her face free of the evidence of tears. Kayuu quickly gathered some firewood and dug a small pit in the ground, piling the sticks into suitable positions. He performed a few quick hand seals while softly saying "_Katon: Gokakkyou no Jutsu._" He released a purposefully weakened blast of flame onto the fire pit, giving them a small, but serviceable, blaze. He speared the fish onto a few sticks and placed them pointing into the fire.

The smell of frying fish awoke Ateshi several minutes later. "I smell food," he stated bluntly. He walked over to the cooking fish and asked "Are you guys gonna share or what?"

"They're not finished yet." Kayuu stated in an irritated tone. They waited in silence until the fish were ready, and while the others ate Kayuu pulled out a map of the Land of Fire. "As close as I can figure it, the closest major village is right here," he said, pointing at the map. "It's called 'Konohagakure'. Lucky for us, I think it's the Land of Fire's shinobi village. Normally, it'd take us about a week to walk there, but if we have transport, we could cut it down to about two days."

"And just what kind of transport are we going to get all the way out here, oh glorious leader?" Ateshi said sarcastically.

"Just for that you don't get to ride my wolves." Kayuu said. He looked at the girl. "Will you want your own ride?" He asked, and she shook her head frantically. "No, huh? Alright." Kayuu bit his finger and quickly ran through a set of hand seals, and slammed his palm on the ground, yelling "_Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_" A large puff of smoke enveloped them, and when it cleared, there was a very large white wolf. From the wolf came a female voice.

"Why, if it isn't Kayuu!" She exclaimed. Kayuu walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her neck in a hug. After drawing away, she looked at him critically. "You're too pale." She said jokingly, looking into his silver eyes. In truth, he was deathly pale, as was the norm in his village, with black hair contrasting greatly to his skin.

"Hey, Akarui. I need a ride for a couple days." He said, smiling. "This girl will be coming with us, if that's okay."

"Of course, of course. What about him?" Akarui asked, pointing her nose at Ateshi.

"He doesn't get a ride from you because of a comment I didn't particularly like. If he tries to ride you, bite his head off." Kayuu smiled.

"Tch... Like I need a wolf..." Ateshi said, turning away from them as Kayuu helped the girl up onto the wolf's back.

"I don't know you, but I know I'm a _lot_ faster than you." Akarui said confidently.

"Heh... I _meant_ I didn't need _you_ to carry me." Ateshi said, before flicking his thumb with one of his clawed fingers, a drop of red remaining on the tip of his ring finger. "_Kuchiyose no Jutsu!_"

A puff of smoke arose after Ateshi finished with the seals and slammed his palm into the ground. When the smoke cleared, a massive red fox that looked like it had five tails appeared. "Hey Ken... what's up?" The fox said, with the voice of a young man, grating and energetic.

"Kyo, I need a ride." Ateshi said, "He won't let me ride his wolf, and they're going to get _way_ too far ahead of me unless I can match their speed."

The fox disappeared in a puff of smoke, and in it's place stood a man with short, spiky red hair. "The name's Kyotoshi, head of the fox clan. I know, I know... I'm _tiny_ compared to the heads of _most_ summoning beast clans, but hey, size ain't _everything_, right?" Kyo said, walking over to Ateshi and putting his arm over his shoulders, an act which Ateshi reciprocated.

Kyo and Ateshi looked similar, their builds and hairstyles, but they also had the same red eyes. Ateshi's left eye was darker than his right, and like all in his village, his hair was white, and his skin was deeply tanned, while Kyo was fair-skinned, and had four light, neigh-horizontal parallel lines on either cheek. "So, you need a ride? You dare call the lord of the foxes for such a _menial_ task?" Kyo said cheerfully, his tone oddly sarcastic.

"Ayip. Now, if you don't mind, we should get going." Ateshi said, leaping up just as Kyo changed back into a fox, although significantly smaller to match the wolf. As Ateshi landed on Kyo's back, the wolf started running, and Kyo turned, soon matching her speed.

"How can you change like that? Is it Henge?" Kayuu asked once they were close enough.

"Nope. Foxes like me have natural shape-shifting abilities. Comes with the territory." Kyo answered, smiling broadly.

* * *

Yes, she has a name. No, you don't learn it anytime soon. Also, we say names in traditional Japanese fashion. Family name first. Example: Uzumaki Naruto. 

And also, every time we say something in Japanese, or bring up the name of an OC, we'll tell you what it translates into. Just 'cause we're nice. If we say part of a name, we'll only tell you the translation for that part of a name. Like Kayuu, we haven't said his family name yet, so we won't tell you what the translation for his family name is. Yes, we know what the names of the canon characters mean, but we're not going to tell you unless you ask, because knowing the meanings of names can ruin some people's opinion of a character.

Kensukai, Ateshi - 'blade' 'sky (Katakana)', 'end' 'order' (Ken, as Kyo calls him, can also mean 'heaven')

Kayuu - 'excellent' 'bravery/courage/heroism'

Kyotoshi - 'great' 'age' (Kyo, his nickname, can also mean 'pride')

Akarui - 'bright/cheerful'

Konohagakure - (lit.) Village hidden in leaves

Katon: Gokakkyou no Jutsu - Fire release: Great fireball technique.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning technique.


	2. A Meeting with the Copy Ninja

Well, we're done with another chapter for now... We ad in me and my co-author PalookaLord (Member ID:1003505 I realize I didn't put his name in the first chapter, so I'm fixing that now.) Anyway, it's been getting a little harder to get chapters done, but we should still be able to keep up a decent pace after we get through the block we're having in chapter 3...

And, I'd like to point out that Kyo isn't a demon fox, and is in no way related to the Kyuubi. Most foxes are red or orange. Also, Kyo may be the leader, but he is neither the largest, nor the oldest of the foxes.

Also, I'd like to reiterate that although this is a NaruHina, the story does not _follow_ Naruto and Hinata.

* * *

The night went by quickly, each remaining in silence as they gathered food, built a fire, and made camp for the night, Kyo and Akarui remaining for the night to continue the trek in the morning. When the sun began to rise over the eastern hills, Akarui nudged Kayuu awake. He and the girl had curled up beside her to keep warm, while Ateshi slept on Kyo's back.

"Oy, ganguro, wake up." Kayuu said as he pushed Ateshi off Kyo, the fox laughing as he stood up.

"_That_ is not funny." Ateshi said, rubbing his sore neck.

"What? Of _course_ it's funny." Kayuu continued, helping the girl onto Akarui's back.

"I _meant_ the ganguro comment." Ateshi growled.

"A bit uncalled for, eh?" Kyo muttered, jumping away with Ateshi on his back.

"Let's just go... we're less than a day from Konohagakure at our speed..." Akarui said, nudging Kayuu.

-

A few hours after mid-day, the large village finally came into view. As they neared the gate, the saw a man walking towards town, and decided to ask for directions.

Kyo changed into human form in a puff of smoke before they approached him, and Kayuu hung back to say goodbye to Akarui before smoke enveloped her too, and she disappeared altogether.

"Hey, Ojiisan! You mind helping us out?" Ateshi yelled, as he ran closer.

As the man turned to face him, Ateshi saw that despite his silvery-gray hair, he wasn't much more than a decade older than him. He held a small, orange book open in front of him with one hand, his mouth and nose were covered by a mask, and is left eye was hidden under his forehead protector. "Eh? Did you say something?" The man asked lazily.

_I thought only people from my village had naturally white hair!_ Ateshi thought as he looked at the man in shock.

"Well, he certainly has the _hearing_ of an old man..." Kyo said as Kayuu and the girl caught up to them.

"Hmm... I've never seen protectors like those before... Where are you from?" The man asked.

"Well, I've never seen a protector like _yours_ before, but you don't see me prying..." Ateshi continued sarcastically.

The man looked up for a moment, as his gaze returned to the travelers, he asked "You don't get out much, do you?"

"Not really, no." Kayuu said, also quite sarcastically.

"Hmm... well, why should I help you? You kids aren't from any village I've heard of, and I'm pretty sure I've been to them all..."

"Really now? ...Well, I guess I can excuse the fact that you haven't heard of our villages... I mean, we probably haven't had any contact with anyone for centuries..." Ateshi said, shrugging.

"Hmm... well?" The man continued.

Ateshi and Kayuu exchanged a varied glance, and then Kayuu spoke up. "We need to see your Kage."

The man raised his eyebrow. "Well now, that's a tall order isn't it... _why_ do you need to see the Hokage?"

"Why do we have to tell you?" Kyo asked, finally getting a say in the conversation.

"Because I'm a Jounin, and I'm pretty sure you'll need the okay from someone about my rank to get in without the right paperwork."

Ateshi, Kayuu, and Kyo were rendered speechless by the statement. But then, the young girl walked forward standing so close in front of the man she had to look almost straight up to see his face. After a few moments of her blank stare, the man gave in, and patted her head with his free hand. "Okay, you win..." The man said. "But first, I'd suggest you get some new clothes before going anywhere else... you look raggedy, and no one's going to take you seriously..."

"We... uhh... don't have any money." Ateshi said sheepishly. "Do we?" He asked, looking to Kyo and Kayuu, who glared and shrugged at him, respectively.

The man looked from them back to the girl, who was still looking up at him sadly. "Well... I guess I can loan you some, until you can pay me back..." He said, handing a small pouch to the girl, who smiled and hugged him around his waist. He loosely returned the gesture with his free arm before she quickly walked back to stand between Kayuu and Ateshi. "I'm Hatake Kakashi by the way, look me up when you're done at the Hokage's place... I'll let a few people know you're with me."

"Kensukai Ateshi."

"Haburi Kayuu."

"Kyotoshi."

After each had said their name, the girl waved as Kakashi left through the gate before they entered themselves.

-

Ateshi and Kayuu were staring each other down, waiting in front of the women's changing rooms in the biggest clothing store they could find after a quick search of the village. Each had already decided upon their new wardrobe, and they were attempting to assess each other's strength by it. Ateshi had a white trench coat on over a fishnet shirt and light gray pants. His weapons were placed under the duster, two kunai and a foot-long short sword strapped to the side of either shin, and shuriken holsters on either side of his thigh. Two more identical short swords were strapped to his back in a fashion that allowed him to unsheathe them by simply pulling downward. Kayuu, on the other hand, wore a similar black coat with a high, closed collar that covered the lower half of his face, and a pair of previously unused shades that nearly covered his eyes. It extended down past his knees, and what he wore underneath was impossible to know, save what could be seen of his black pants. Neither of them wore their forehead protectors.

"Well, how are you doing in there?" Kayuu asked after a while.

"You want me to get one of the female attendants?" Ateshi chimed in, and the girl simply popped her head out from behind the door shortly to shake her head. He laid back against the wall and slumped down a bit before continuing. "Why doesn't she just talk?"

"You have to understand what she's _been_ through. You can't expect her to just _get over_ what happened." Kayuu said, bordering on anger. "And where is that damned fox anyway?"

"That was a rhetorical question asked as a complaint, and Kyo left a while ago. I mean, he's got things to do on his side too y'know." Ateshi said in attempted sarcasm.

When the girl finally came out, she was wearing a gray hoodie with the hiragana 'shi' 'no' 'bi' down the back, and standard blue jeans under it. "You look good." Kayuu said, leading the girl to the counter so they could pay for what they were wearing.

"So then, let's go meet the Hokage..." Ateshi said when they were finally back outside.

* * *

Ateshi's swords were very hard to describe... the ones on his back anyway, it's hard to say just _how_ they're there without messing up the flow by rambling on about it... so, I'll do that here. they're not really strapped directly to his back, more _to his sides_ on his back... he can pull the left sword with his left hand for instance... also, Ateshi wears his coat open, so you can see his shirt and pants, but Kayuu doesn't. (and, a duster is a term for a coat that sweeps along the ground, in case anyone doesn't know.) And, they're all wearing the standard shinobi sandals. The "previously unworn" part of the description of Kayuu's shades means that he had them already, he simply didn't wear them.

Ganguro - (No direct translation) A term used to describe someone with skin darker than their hair color. This does not occur naturally (outside of fiction). Often used as an insult.

Ojiisan - Grandfather, Gramps, general word for 'old man'. (As Kakashi has white hair, Ateshi assumed he was an old man.)

Hokage - (lit.) Fire shadow

Haburi - Power

Hiragana - Primary of the three Japanese alphabets. (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji)


	3. Sabaku no Gaara

Slight change of plans... We've decided to explain everything in chapter 4, because otherwise it'd take too long to write, and frankly, we like to keep our chapter length somewhat consistent, so we're splitting up what we had for 3 into 3 and 4.

* * *

"I Hatake Kakashi, nominate all three of my students to take the Chuunin exam." The Hokage nodded, and before the red-eyed woman next to him could speak, he continued, "Also, there are three strangers in the village... I've never heard of their village before, and it doesn't look like they know much of anything, but I think they're here about the exam too..." 

"Hmm... And?" The Hokage asked.

"If they are, I would be glad to vouch for them as well." Kakashi said, a wave of surprise running through the room.

"And why is that?" The Hokage asked.

"Because, I have a feeling they're going to become great shinobi... but that same feeling tells me that they have no idea what they're doing."

"So, you want us to let them in, and if they don't have a Jounin instructor to vouch for them, then you will do so yourself?" The Hokage asked, curiosity filling his voice.

"Yes." Kakashi said firmly, and after another moment, continued in his usual hilariously lethargic tone, "Sorry Kurenai, I forgot to say it earlier... go ahead."

-

As they walked along, looking for any direction towards where they might find the Hokage, they came upon what appeared to be a fight starting. A large young man in black with facial tattoos held a small boy by his abnormally long scarf. A blond young woman stood behind him, indifferent to what was taking place, while a blond boy in orange slung insults at the man in black. A pink haired girl and two other small children kept behind the blond boy, trying to calm him down.

"Hmm... the big guy with the tattoos look like he's going to _kill_ that kid..." Kayuu said, openly concerned.

"Should we help him?" Ateshi asked, knowing it didn't matter what he said, they were going to have to break up the fight eventually. But, before they could act, the young girl with them stooped down, took a kunai out of Ateshi's ankle-holster, put all her weight behind her arm and threw it, striking the mans forehead protector.

"You... actually _meant_ to hit his protector, _didn't_ you?" Kayuu asked in shock and awe as the girl merely smiled broadly.

"I'd tell you to drop the kid, but it looks like you already did..." Ateshi said as he started walking closer, the small boy now scurrying behind the young man with spiky blond hair.

"You're outnumbered." Another boy said as he sat leisurely on a nearby tree branch. "Get out of our village."

"Sasuke-kun!" A pink haired girl nearby happily screamed at his arrival.

"Besides, isn't it true you can't even _be _here without proper authorization? 'Cause if you don't, I'd be more than happy to kick your asses out of here." Ateshi said cockily.

"I'll kill you!" The tattooed boy roared.

"Kankuro, stop it. You're an embarrassment to our village." A new boy said, hanging upside-down from a higher branch of the tree than the first. He had a kanji in red tattooed on his forehead, and a large gourd on his back.

"Ga...Gaara..." The one addressed as Kankuro said feebly.

"Who's mister 'ha-ha'?" Kayuu asked sarcastically, looking up at the two who just arrived.

"Okay... now I'm just tired of this. I want names and reasons for being here, NOW." Ateshi yelled, running out between the two groups.

"I'm UZUMAKI NARUTO!!!" The boy in orange immediately declared, "And this is Haruno Sakura and Konohamaru. We all _live_ here." He added, motioning to the pink haired girl and the boy the man in black held in turn.

"And this is Udon and Moegi!" Konohamaru said, pointing out the two other small children with them.

"Why should we give you our names?" The blond girl asked angrily.

"Shut up Temari." The boy with the gourd said as he appeared between his companions in a flurry of sand. "We don't have time to play around here."

"So, Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara, eh?" Ateshi said with a sly twinge in his voice, earning him a glare from the three who's names he'd just recited. "If you don't want someone to know your names, you shouldn't say it in front of them."

"Wait... you're ninjas from the Hidden Sand, right? Why _are_ you here?" Sakura asked.

"Are you stupid or something?" Temari asked. "We're here for the Chuunin selection exam."

". . . Chuunin selection exam?" Naruto slowly asked.

"You really are stupid, aren't you? The Chuunin exam is where outstanding Genin from Sand, Leaf, and other neighboring villages assemble to take an exam to become a Chuunin..." Temari continued.

"Very interesting... the test is taken together?" Ateshi asked, unaware she'd merely paused to catch her breath before continuing, rather than ending her explanation altogether.

"Hey Ateshi, we should see about entering this thing..." Kayuu said, a wide grin enveloping his features. "There's sure to be a _few_ good fights in this thing..."

"Now," The boy called Sasuke said, appearing between Naruto and Gaara. "Are you going to leave, or not?"

"Didn't you hear me? We're here for a reason!" Temari yelled.

"I think the boy means 'leave or we beat your asses' not 'get the hell out of our village'." Ateshi said as he and Kayuu walked up beside Sasuke.

After a short pause as the two groups stared each other down, Gaara said in a voice laced with malicious intent, "Let's go."

"Gaara?" Kankuro asked in surprise.

"We have more important business to attend to." Gaara said as he turned away from Ateshi and Kayuu, and disappeared in a flurry of sand, Temari and Kankuro following shortly afterward.

"And why are you three here?" Sakura asked.

"What?" Ateshi asked, turning to face her.

"Like you said, anyone without a reason to be here has to leave, even if we have to make them leave by force. Now, why are you here?" She continued.

"Well, I uhh, erm... You see..." Ateshi mumbled incoherently.

"We're with Kakashi!" Kayuu exploded, having no idea what else to say.

"You know Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Sensei?" Ateshi asked. "That guy's a teacher?"

"We're team seven, and Kakashi-sensei is our Jounin instructor." Sakura calmly explained, but as she turned back towards Sasuke, she saw he had disappeared some moments ago without a word. "Sasuke-kun!" She yelled, before running off to find him.

Naruto merely folded his arms above his head and yawned. "It's always 'Sasuke-Sasuke-Sasuke' with her... when'll she understand that bastard doesn't like her..."

"Is it always like this?" Kayuu asked.

Naruto turned back towards Kayuu on his heel and said "Pretty much... Sasuke's just a pretty-boy bastard that does whatever he wants, Sakura bases everything she does on Sasuke, and I'm left bored and alone!"

"See you later Naruto..." Konohamaru said, as he, Udon and Moegi started walking away.

"What? You too? What about playing ninja!?" Naruto yelled.

Ateshi leaned over towards Kayuu and whispered "Why would a ninja '_play_ ninja'?" Kayuu merely shrugged.

"I'm gonna make sure he's not beat up too bad." Moegi yelled back as they turned a corner. Obviously they were going to have someone take a look at Konohamaru.

"So then what am I supposed to do all day?!" Naruto yelled.

"This kid doesn't have an 'indoor-voice' does he?" Kayuu asked sarcastically.

"Well, we've got a few hours... What were you thinking of doing?" Ateshi asked as Naruto was slowly walking back towards them.

"I'm hungry." Naruto stated bluntly.

The girl pulled on Ateshi's sleeve, and Kayuu added, "Apparently, she is too... you have any place in mind?"

A wide grin spread over Naruto's face, and the four soon found themselves at the Ichiraku Ramen shop, run by an aged man and his daughter. "Well, if it isn't our best customer... what'll it be today?" the man behind the counter asked.

"Beef ramen sounds good today." Naruto said, sitting down at the counter.

Ateshi looked at the others, who shrugged. "I guess we'll all have the same..." Ateshi said cautiously as he and the girl sat on one side of Naruto, and Kayuu on the other.

"Boy, you look a little pale, are you all right?" The man asked as he set a bowl in front of Kayuu.

"Yes. I'm fine. I just don't get much sun." Kayuu responded, before taking up his chopsticks.

"This stuff's good..." Ateshi said, nearly unable to take his eyes from the fact that Naruto and the girl were eating in an almost identically gluttonous fashion...

By the time Naruto had finished his fifth bowl, and the girl her third, Ateshi and Kayuu were merely staring at them, a single empty bowl in front of either of them. "Are they ever going to stop eating?" Ateshi asked.

"I often find myself asking that whenever he shows up." The girl behind the counter said.

"_Neeeechaaaaaan_..." Naruto whined, despite the fact that his mouth was stuffed full of noodles.

Everyone chuckled as he and the girl continued to eat.

-

"Well, we're broke." Kayuu said, slightly irritated. "Five bowls? _Five_? I couldn't've eaten two!" he added as the girl simply smiled.

"What about him? He ate... what was it, eight? Ten?" Ateshi said.

"We weren't _paying_ for him, now were we?" Kayuu added.

"Hey, I'm broke too..." Naruto said.

"So, where to now then?" Ateshi asked, almost sarcastically.

"Well, I need to meet Kakashi-sensei... Mission stuff." Naruto said. "You guys know him, right? Maybe you should come too."

"We've got nothing better to do... maybe he'll tell us where to find the Hokage..." Kayuu said

-

Eventually, the four found Sakura and Sasuke on a bridge, waiting for Kakashi. After a severe rebuttal from Sakura on his tardiness, Naruto, Ateshi, Kayuu and the girl that was with them took up comfortable places around the bridge and waited with Sakura and Sasuke. After several hours of waiting, Kakashi appeared on one of the supports for the bridge, far above them, and said, "Morning people."

"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura both yelled.

Kakashi appeared on the side of the bridge and said, "Sorry, today I got lost on the road of life."

"Liar!" The same two yelled.

"Well, this may be sudden, but..." Kakashi said, "I've nominated you for the Chuunin selection exam."

"_What did you say_?!" Sakura bellowed.

"You think this makes up for...!" Naruto started, but Kakashi put up his hand to stop him.

"All six of you." The Jounin added. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were surprised, in their fervor, they'd forgotten Ateshi, Kayuu and the girl were there as well. "You three, here are your applications." He said, handing a piece of paper to each of his three Genin. "Though this is just a nomination. Whether to take the exam is up to each of you. Those who wish to take it should sign those papers and turn them in at room 301 by 4pm tomorrow."

"Hey, you said..." Kayuu started, but once again, Kakashi halted the other mid-sentence.

"You three are coming with me. You need to talk to the Hokage before they'll let you in anyway." Kakashi said, leading them away towards the center of Konohagakure as his Genin watched, and eventually walked away in the other direction.

* * *

In the manga at least, Naruto, Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon were planning on playing ninja that day before they met up with Kankuro. Ironically, Sakura asked the same question of 'why would a ninja 'play ninja'?'. 

We realize that it was probably two different days, the whole thing with Kankuro, and the thing with Kakashi, but for the sake of the plot, we're assuming they were just supposed to meet him later the same day. (Yes, I'm just being lazy, and I don't want to write all this other stuff, probably a chapter or two by itself, leading up to the same conclusion.)

Everyone in the world is just a brother, sister, aunt, grandpa, or other relative as far as Naruto is concerned, and he often calls them as such. (In the Japanese versions of the manga and anime anyway.)

-kun - (suffix) An honorific on a boy's name. Meant as a term of endearment or for boys younger than the speaker.

Sensei - teacher/mentor

Neechan - sister

Sabaku no Gaara - Gaara of the Sand Waterfall (Gaara's full title in Japanese)


	4. Sandaime

Now, I realize I said everything would be explained by the last chapter, but this should get it all.

* * *

"This is the Hokage's Tower." Kakashi said, after he'd led them to a large red building with the kanji for 'fire' emblazoned near the top.

"Big..." Ateshi said, looking upward.

"Astute observation..." Kayuu said, subliminally sarcastic.

"Well, let's get going..." Kakashi said, walking into the building.

When they'd finally reached the top floor, and entered the Hokage's study, they were greeted by a rather old man who they assumed was the Hokage, and a man with a horizontal scar above his nose standing next to him. "Ah, I've been expecting you..." The old man said.

"Hokage-sama, these were the three I told you about." Kakashi said, scooting them into the middle of the room.

"I'd assumed as much." The Hokage said. "Now, I don't know who you are, where you're from, or the extent of your skills. So, I'd like you have you all state them for me."

"Kensukai Ateshi, Genin of Awaigakure, the Village Hidden in the Light, close-combat specialist." Ateshi stated, in a militant fashion.

"Haburi Kayuu, Genin of Kuraigakure, the Village Hidden in the Darkness, espionage and assassination." Kayuu said, in the same cold, military tone.

Sarutobi had to wonder to himself, _How could they be from those villages? We'd decided those villages couldn't exist decades ago..._

After Kakashi's lazy eye widened slightly, and Sarutobi was considering what to do next, what had seemed impossible before happened. "R...Rikka." The girl said. "Twilight village... Genin... Genjutsu specialist..."

"Hey! And here we thought you were mute!" Kayuu said bluntly.

"Tanimagakure... The Village Hidden in the Valley. Also known as the village between light and dark, or the Twilight Village." Ateshi said solemnly. "Founded 24 years ago, destroyed almost two days ago."

"I've heard a legend about those villages... the reason there is only one village per country, like Konohagakure to the Land of Fire, is because the two villages of the Land of Mirrors were too busy settling disputes between themselves to fight off enemy invasion..." The man beside the Hokage said.

"And they're still fighting that damned civil war to this day." Kayuu said, his tone darkened by years of hatred and malice.

Ateshi put his arm around Rikka to comfort her, knowing she must be terrified right now, and knowing that what he'd said about her village must be bringing back terrible memories.

Sarutobi rose to his feet, a frightening man when his gaze holds as much intensity as it did then. "Do you have any proof of your claims?" He asked, not knowing what to expect when the three were confronted with this question.

"Yeah, I think we do..." Ateshi said almost cheerfully, pulling a forehead protector from a pocket in his trench coat. It bore three lines of equal length, one vertical in the center, and two diagonal lines on either side of it. The cloth the plate was attached to was white, and abnormally long, extending nearly three feet from the plate on either side. He then tied it around his head, with the plate on the left side, and the knot on the right side of his head, letting the excess hang over the front of his shoulder.

Kayuu took his protector from his coat as well, tying it onto his head normally. His black hair blended perfectly with the black cloth, his bangs hanging over the plate, slightly obscuring the symbol on it; a spiral, made up of five lines extending clockwise from the center, eventually connecting in a perfect circle. "That proof enough for you?" Kayuu asked, resisting the urge to act smug.

After a few moments of examination, the Hokage determined that they were legitimate forehead protectors. "And what about you dear?" He asked, looking over towards Rikka.

"I... I don't have it..." She muttered, "I must've lost it... I didn't have it when..." Before she could finish her sentence, a stream of tears began to pour over her cheeks, her hands clasped together over her chest.

Sarutobi knew from his days as a father that the girl's tears were sincere, after a quick moment of thought, he rose to his feet to comfort her, "Shh... don't worry." He said as he walked to her. "I believe you." He said, taking her hands as he looked down on her with a warm smile.

When he took back his hands, Rikka held a small plate, riveted to green cloth, imbued with the symbol of the leaf. "I..." She began, only to hear an old, fatherly voice interrupt her.

"It's okay. You look like a smart young girl, and you've shown how strong you are. Not many would shed as few tears after what you must have seen..." Sarutobi said softly. The sagely demeanor of the Hokage coming together with years of love for his family and his village.

Once more, the girl could not speak, she merely embraced the old man before her, tears soaking through his robes.

After a long while, Rikka released the Hokage, and returned to her place beside Kayuu and Ateshi. "Iruka..." Sarutobi said silently.

"Sir.." Iruka started, but was interrupted by the Hokage.

"Call it the folly of an old man." Sarutobi said, smiling.

After a heavy sigh, Iruka handed each a piece of paper. "These are applications for the Chuunin selection exam. Fill them out, and..." He said, but again, was interrupted.

"We got this speech already." Ateshi said confidently.

"Well then, did they tell you it can only be taken in a three-man team?" Iruka spat sarcastically.

"Baka..." they heard from the back corner of the room.

"Did you say something Kakashi?" Iruka nearly yelled, only to see there was nothing but a scarecrow there. After a short span of grumbling, Iruka continued. "It's lucky there's three of you. So, get that signed and turned in by four."

Sarutobi motioned to the door, and the three of them walked back out into the hallway. "Hey, I know a place you guys can stay for a while..." Kakashi said as he leaned against the wall just outside the door.

* * *

If you don't understand the way Ateshi wears his forehead protector, it's almost _exactly_ the same way Zabuza wears his. Also, the symbol on it looks almost like an arrow pointing up, but none of the lines are touching. Meant to symbolize the rays of the sun.

Kayuu has his protector normally, plate forward. (Like Naruto wears his) The symbol is meant to symbolize a point that consumes all light.

The Twilight protector's symbol is one circle inside another with very little space between them. It is meant to symbolize a solar eclipse.

In hindsight, the name of chapter 1 (In the Fading Twilight) really makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

-sama - (Suffix) someone who is to be shown great respect, such as royalty or political leaders.

Awaigakure - (lit.) Village Hidden in Light

Kuraigakure - (lit.) Village Hidden in Darkness

Tanimagakure - (lit.) Village Hidden in Valley

Rikka - snow

baka - idiot, jerk, moron, standard all-purpose insult.

(Most people won't get this joke unless we tell you so, just in case you don't know, 'Kakashi' is Japanese for 'scarecrow'.)

Sandaime - The Third (Sandaime Hokage: The Third Fire Shadow)


	5. Settling In

Well, I've gone through a crazy maelstrom of what goes where, and I've had to replace the past chapters a couple of times with small alterations. All of this is, apparently, assuming it's the day before the exams, because frankly I don't want to re-write the entire story just to fix this one problem. So, if you read the other four chapters after this one's been posted, then you've read the updated version, however, I replaced chapter three because of a spelling error (Kayuu's family name is Haburi, not Harubi as I had it.) and that's all. I took a line out of chapter 4 and updated the footnotes in it, so it may be worth it to some to re-read it. But, like I said, if you read up to now after this one's been posted, you're fine. The problem that's come up has only _slightly_ screwed over the plot, and if anything, it's just made the wait before the exam significantly shorter.

Now, in this chapter, we're _assuming_ they've got some sort of financial aid program for shinobi... I mean, Naruto never seems to have to pay for his apartment... but, it's a temporary thing, until they _can_ pay for it...

* * *

"So, where are we headed anyway?" Kayuu asked as they walked through several streets.

"We're going to find you a place to stay." Kakashi said lazily as he led them along.

"I thought you said you already _had_ a place for us to stay!" Ateshi said, almost in a rage.

"I know of an apartment complex that'll let you guys stay there while you get back on your feet. I had someone look into it, and if you guys started going out on missions and bringing money to the village, then the Hokage might take the rent out of that." Kakashi said in his same standard tone.

"I... don't really like the sound of that... 'Might'?" Kayuu asked skeptically.

"Yes." Kakashi said, turning around to face them. "They _might_ pay for it, but if they don't, then you'll just have to work for the money to pay for it, because what's going on with you three is a _very _rare situation, and frankly they don't know what to do with you."

"Okay..." Ateshi said, a bit confused.

Kakashi sighed heavily before continuing. "We'll see what happens after the Chuunin exams. Chances are, you guys will end up doing missions for Konoha, so we should be able to give you a decent pay even if it doesn't cover wherever you're staying."

"Again with the 'if's..." Ateshi groaned.

Kakashi turned away and continued walking. "An 'if' is better than nothing." He said, "Well, we're here."

They walked into a large, two-story building and walked through a few corridors before finally coming to a stop in front of one of the rooms. "Here?" Rikka asked.

"This is the best two-room apartment they have. I'm assuming you'll want it, but if you don't there's a few other places available..." Kakashi said, opening the door to reveal a small room that looked like a kitchen area, and two hallways, one leading further back, and another to the left. "I'll let you guys look around a bit..."

After the three walked around the apartment for a few minutes, checking both bedrooms, the bathroom, and the kitchen, they decided they might as well stay there. "I think we'll take it... right?" Ateshi asked, looking over to Kayuu and Rikka.

Rikka shrugged, and Kayuu simply grunted "Sure..."

"All right then... I guess I'll leave you to get settled in..." Kakashi said before disappearing in a gust of swirling wind.

"Well, I'm going to head to bed. I assume he got us a two-room place so you could have your own room..." Ateshi said, turning to Rikka.

"There was a room with two futons, right? I guess that's ours." Kayuu said, walking down one of the hallways, dragging one of the futons from their room into what appeared to be the storage closet adjacent to it.

"What?" Rikka asked quietly.

"What're you doing?" Ateshi asked, finishing Rikka's question.

"I like dark places. I grew up in a completely dark environment, remember?" Kayuu said, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get some sleep."

"Yeah, I get that, but aren't you supposed to be blind?" Ateshi asked, Kayuu slamming the door to the storeroom in retort.

"You?" Rikka asked, turning towards Ateshi.

"Yeah, it's not gonna' be fun come night-time..." Ateshi said, walking to his room, falling face-first onto his futon.

Rikka sighed heavily, closing the door behind Ateshi. She took a final round about her new home, examining every detail. The rust on the stove, the cracks in the walls, the bathroom was relatively clean in comparison to the rest of the apartment, but the mirror was cracked down the center, and the mat in front of the shower seemed to be full of mildew. Finally, she walked across the hall to her room, which didn't seem quite as bad as the other rooms, probably because of the skylight. It had a few cracks between the walls, but nothing that could be seen unless you looked for it. Rikka took in a deep breath, the orange hues of the setting sun flowing in from above her. She stretched after a moment, yawning after the long day. Walking over to curl up beneath the blanket she found atop her futon and watched as the light of the setting sun gave way to the thousands of stars in the night sky.

* * *

Awaigakure is a fortress set on a high, snow-covered mountaintop. The snow and ice reflect the sunlight back upward, thus the inhabitant's dark tan and sun-bleached hair. Also, the intense light renders most of them incapable of seeing in the dark.

Kuraigakure is set in a cavernous valley in which there is little to no light whatsoever. Thus, most of it's people are essentially blind, as their eyes can't take the intense light of day in comparison. This accounts for their pale skin. Their black hair, however, is believed to be a result of training with a special jutsu unique to their village that will be revealed in a later chapter. The reason Kayuu is able to see in daylight will also eventually be explained.

Tanimagakure is a middle-ground between the above villages, having been created by remnants from both that had no intention of being caught up in the war. It is set in a valley to include both the dark aspects of most of their days, while keeping the light necessary for the refugees of Awaigakure to see.

The apartment is basically just a square. I'll explain _exactly_ how the rooms are set up to avoid any confusion. The hallway of the main building is at the bottom in this explanation, and this is the simplest way I can think of to describe it. The kitchen/living room is the lower-right quarter, Rikka's room is the lower-left, the bathroom is directly adjacent to Rikka's room, taking up half of the upper-left quarter, while the storage room (Kayuu's room) takes up the other half, and is directly adjacent to Ateshi's room, which takes up the upper-right quarter. If you still can't figure out how the rooms are set up, then don't worry about it. Chances are you won't need to know to get the story.


	6. DYNAMIC ENTRY!

This chapter's a bit longer than usual, but it should work out just the same... Sorry about taking so long, but I'm in a bit of a funk. It might take longer than normal for the next chapter too.

And yes, it's one of those no-chair Japanese tables.

* * *

Ateshi yawned, leaning up as he stretched. The mid-morning sun pouring into his room. After a long while, he'd managed to stand upright, and walked to the door. As he entered the hall, he slammed his fist on Kayuu's door three times, and upon hearing a groan from the inside, walked out into the kitchen. When he saw Rikka writing something at a small low table, Ateshi asked, "What time is it?" To which Rikka answered by merely pointing to a clock on the wall. "When did we get that? . . . You've been out getting money from people because you're just too damn cute again, haven't you?"

"Maaaybe..." Rikka said, smiling broadly, despite having her back to Ateshi.

"Well, it's almost noon... If you've got money, we should get something to eat before we find wherever it is we need to take the forms..." Ateshi said, walking over to sit at the table.

"The academy." Rikka said silently.

"And do you know where that is?" Ateshi asked, but Rikka simply shrugged.

"Someone said 'eat'. As in food?" Kayuu asked, rubbing the back of his neck as he came to sit down next to the other two.

-

Roughly three hours later, after finding a place to eat, and asking directions from the townsfolk, Rikka, Ateshi and Kayuu stood in front of the ninja academy building. When they walked in, as they looked around for room 301, they saw a crowd and decided to investigate it. When they'd finally pushed their way through, they saw a boy in green knocked to the floor after trying to gain entry to the room past two young men. When a girl asked to be let through, she too was knocked aside. "That's not very nice..." Ateshi said, dashing forward to catch her before she hit the ground. "Now, this is room 301, huh? You're gonna' let us through." He added, Helping her to her feet.

"Baka..." Rikka muttered under her breath.

"Let's give him a while..." Kayuu said quietly, hearing Rikka's insult.

"And why would we let a kid like you in?" One of the two asked.

Ateshi laced his fingers behind his head and smiled. "Well, that's quite simple, really..." He said, pulling his hands apart sharply, foot-long crystal-like red claws formed between each of his knuckles as he brought his arms to his sides. "Because if you don't, I'll just have to _make_ you let us through..."

"What is that?" The other of the two barring the way asked in shock.

"Ukiyoousatsu, my family's Kekkei Genkai. I have complete control over my own blood." Ateshi said smugly. "Now, are you going to let me by, or what?" He asked as he brought his right arm up to point his claws between the two.

"That's not room 301 you idiot." Kayuu said angrily, most of the others began muttering amongst themselves in response. Noticing that some new faces had arrived, he looked over and said, "Naruto! Knock some sense into this moron for me, would you?"

Naruto inched back in shock, as Sasuke stepped forward and said, "It's a Genjutsu, right Sakura?"

"Yeah... that's not room 301, because this is the _second_ floor." Sakura declared proudly.

Ateshi sighed heavily as his arms dropped to his sides, the claws of blood returning to a liquid state before retracting into his arms. The wounds he opened to create the claws scabbed over instantly.

"Well, I'm impressed, but just seeing through a Genjutsu doesn't mean you'll pass the exam!" The boy guarding the door yelled, sending a sweeping kick at Sasuke, who attempted to counterattack with a kick of his own before the boy in green appeared between them, blocking both strikes.

"And here I though you'd need my help..." Ateshi said, lowering his arm, the boy in green dropping both legs, leaving the boy who was guarding the door to pull three red needles out of his knee.

"Hey, let's go already..." Kayuu said, as Rikka walked on ahead of them.

"Yeah, yeah..." Ateshi said, turning back to the girl he caught, waving to her. "Hey, my name's Ateshi, look me up when this whole thing's over, okay?" He added, smiling like an idiot.

"Uhh... sure..." The girl said, blushing slightly as the boy in green started nudging her to say something. "I'm Tenten." She added, almost yelling so that Ateshi could hear after he'd started walking away.

"She seems nice..." Kayuu said as they rounded the corner, leaving Naruto and the others behind them.

"And cute too..." Ateshi said, smiling as he laced his hands behind his head again.

"Idiots..." Rikka muttered when they entered a large chamber. "Wait..."

"Eh? What's up?" Kayuu asked.

"We have time, let's wait here..." Rikka said, her voice monotonous.

"Hey, you finally starting to talk in more than one syllable?" Ateshi asked, laughing, before Rikka slammed her elbow into his stomach.

Kayuu laughed at the spectacle, and said "Maybe we should listen to the girl... I mean, the competition's gotta pass through here anyway, right, might as well get a look at a few of 'em... or whatever she was gettin' at."

And so the three sat in a nearby corner, and waited. Soon, Naruto and his team came in, and Sasuke was challenged to a fight by the boy in green, whom they called Lee. They watched as the fight began, and was abruptly ended by a red turtle, never saying a word. _So, that's the Sharingan? Heheh... it looks a little familiar... This should be a very interesting day._ Kayuu thought, as he stepped forward, lowering his shades and glaring intently at Sasuke and Lee.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!!!" A green blur yelled as it struck Kayuu's face, before jumping onto the turtle's back.

"Gai-sensei!?" Lee asked, curious of the blow to the newcomer's head.

"I sensed killing intent! Such thoughts are not fit to fan the FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Gai declared, striking all but two others in the room as disturbingly odd.

_That was awesome..._ Kayuu thought as he lay slumped against the wall, blood running freely from his brow. _I have to learn that..._

When the turtle cleared it's throat as a reminder of the issue at hand, Gai struck a solid blow to Lee's cheek. "Lee..." He said, staring Lee in the eyes, on the verge of tears.

"Gai-sensei..." Lee muttered as tears began to run down his cheeks.

"Let's go... _now_." Rikka said sternly, Ateshi following without argument, dragging Kayuu by the collar of his coat. Leaving the touching, yet somewhat disturbing scene to play out of its' own accord.

After they'd gotten partway down the hall, Kayuu started to struggle against Ateshi. "Let go! Let me up!" He yelled, and in response, Ateshi let his head fall to the floor as he released Kayuu's coat.

Rikka snickered at the sight, she and Ateshi smiling as they kept walking. Kayuu scrambled to his feet, catching up to the others as they passed through the doors into room 301. "Oh my..." Ateshi said, at the sight of the many people taking the exam. "This should be interesting..."

* * *

Neither the Manga nor the Anime seem to say exactly where they turn in those papers, so we won't bother either. Oh, the two people Gai didn't freak out were Lee and Kayuu. Whether he really thought Gai was cool, or he was just suffering from a concussion, we'll let you decide.

Ukiyoousatsu - 'transient life' 'striking dead' - Those with this Kekkei Genkai often spend their entire lives learning to control it, essentially making it a choice from birth to specialize in their Kekkei Genkai or learn to be a shinobi. They also sharpen their long fingernails in order to slash any point in their body they need to, as seen when Ateshi cut open the skin between his fingers (The claws would have had immense difficulty forming otherwise at his skill level). They are often born with an excessive blood production rate and a slightly faster metabolism to support it. Full masters of this Kekkei Genkai (Those who choose from birth to learn no jutsu whatsoever) are easily a match for most Jounin. The sole defining external trait of this Kekkei Genkai are naturally red eyes.

Sharingan - (lit.) copy wheel eye


	7. The Exam Begins

Heh... sorry this took so long... had a lot of holiday stuff to take care of, so I'd gotten out of the habit of writing...so, as a gift, here's a special extra-long chapter. It's probably only that long due to transcribing a lot of the anime, the stuff people probably already knows, but hey... It's all relevant and worth going over again.

Eh... I was kinda out of it for a lot of this, so... eh. If it's a bit off, I'm sorry. PalookaLord wrote the majority of this chapter. Still getting back into this...

* * *

After a moment of staring down their competition, Kayuu sighed and asked "So, are we gonna' go figure out where to sit, or what?"

"Pfeh..." Rikka scoffed, instead choosing to lean against the wall beside the door.

"Well... okay. We'll stay here a bit. Kayuu, go find our seats." Ateshi said as he slumped against the wall next to Rikka.

"Yes _sir_." Kayuu said, bowing sarcastically. "But you seem to be neglecting the fact that no examiners are here yet." After waiting only a few minutes, the doors opened, drawing their attention to a group of three people. Naruto, along with his teammates, Sakura and the boy they called "Sasuke". "Oi," Kayuu said, "That team hurts my eyes."

"I know what you mean. Bright orange clothing and pink hair? That can't be her natural color." Ateshi supplied. Sakura appeared to be looking around at the room, appearing slightly sick. Almost immediately, a blonde dashed in, yelling and wrapping herself around a very irate-looking Sasuke.

"You're late, Sasuke-kun!" The blonde shouted. All the while, Kayuu was mentally wincing at the volume and idiocy of the blonde.

_She's making herself a target for everyone in this room,_ he thought. This thought grew stronger as Sakura and the blonde engaged in a shouting match. This, however, was cut off as two more people joined the growing crowd, a chubby-looking kid eating chips and another wearing a fishnet shirt with spiky black hair. Kayuu was fairly sure he caught the word "troublesome" from the kid in the fishnet shirt. Rikka, however, apparently heard all of his comment and scoffed. Soon following this, three more joined the group, one with tall hair wearing a large coat and sunglasses, a shy-looking girl with dark blue hair, and a loud boy with a dog on his head. Ateshi nudged Kayuu's leg from his place on the ground and spoke. "Is this entire village full of freaks?" He asked.

"From what I see, that's a distinct possibility." Kayuu replied.

"What's with the girl's eyes?" Ateshi questioned. From Kayuu's viewpoint, she appeared to be lacking pupils of any kind, and her eyes were an odd lavender.

"Kekkei Genkai, most likely. This is getting interesting..." Kayuu answered with a small grin, while Rikka simply shrugged. They carried on a small conversation, with Naruto's words and those of the boy with the dog on his head clearly audible, when the girl with the odd eyes spoke they couldn't hear a thing. The odd girl appeared to blush several times, all of them happening when Naruto spoke to her. Kayuu snickered at the scene. The chubby-looking boy stepped towards the boy with the dog on his head, when the boy with the sunglasses intercepted him, saying something that Kayuu, Ateshi, and Rikka couldn't quite hear. The chubby boy looked down, and upon closer inspection, there seemed to be a bug walking along the ground.

_He stopped him to save a bug? Weird._ Ateshi thought to himself. Soon after the bug passed the group, yet another walked over, one with silver hair and glasses. He advised the group they should quiet down, and asked them if they were the ones who had graduated that year.

_Rookies!? In THIS kind of an exam?_ Kayuu thought, bewildered. The one with silver hair made a rather insulting comment, drawing an angry reply from the blonde, and introduced himself as Yakushi Kabuto. Kabuto advised the group of rookies to look around them, and they did so, apparently noticing all the killing intent directed at them for the first time. Kabuto pointed out the team behind them as a team from the Hidden Rain, and claimed they had a short temper. Kayuu grinned, as there was at least _some_ challenge to be had in the exam. The conversation continued, with Kabuto saying they reminded him of "the old him", until Sakura interjected, asking if this was his second time. Kabuto said no, and corrected her, saying it was his seventh, eliciting a snort from both Kayuu and Ateshi. Kabuto explained that the exam was held twice a year, thus making it his fourth year trying. Sakura once again spoke, asking if he knew much about the exam, with an affirmative from Kabuto.

"So you must be an expert then, right Kabuto-san?" Naruto asked eagerly.

"But he still hasn't passed." The boy in the fishnet shirt said lazily.

"Yeah, that's true," Kabuto said, embarrassed.

"Is the Chuunin exam really that hard? This is getting even more troublesome." The boy in the fishnet shirt said.

"I like him..." Rikka said with a smirk on her face.

"Maybe I should give my cute underclassmen some information then..." Kabuto said.

"Cute? Pfeh." Kayuu said, making himself known.

"Yeah! I'm not just cute! I'm _gorgeous_." The annoying blonde girl said.

"No, just a migraine waiting to happen." Kayuu said, causing laughter to erupt throughout the group, and an enraged expression to come across the girl's face.

"And you would be?" She asked.

"Give me your name and I might give you mine." Kayuu said, having recalled a similar saying from Sasuke's bout with the freak in the green jumpsuit.

"I'm Yamanaka Ino. Now what's yours?" She said.

"Hmmm...not gonna tell you." Kayuu replied smugly.

"WHAT!? You said-" She started, but Kayuu cut her off.

"I said '_might_'." He said, causing Ateshi to snort in laughter.

"Surprisingly, I don't recognize you three. Where are you from?" Kabuto interjected.

"If we told you, we'd probably have to kill you." Ateshi said in jest.

"What're your names, at least?" Kabuto continued, unfazed by Ateshi's joke.

"I'm Haburi Kayuu."

"Kensukai Ateshi. This is Rikka."

"Then let's find out what my recognition cards have to say about you." Kabuto said, and pulled out a deck of green and red cards. He placed it on the ground, and explained their function after a confused look on everyone's face. "In simple terms, it's a card that has information burned into it using my Chakra. I've collected information on this exam in the past four years. There's about 200 cards total." He placed a single card face-up on the ground, spun it several times in a counter-clockwise direction, and a small puff of smoke signified its activation. A surprised look came onto his face, as he activated another, then another, all next to each other. "Complete blanks..." He said, as everyone got a good look at the cards. They had a small pentagon, meant to display levels of skill, three small boxes meant to display teammates next to a larger area meant to have a picture of the person themselves. All of these areas had question marks in them, aside from the name and photo areas. "Where are you from...?" Kabuto asked.

"Just...list us under Konoha." Kayuu answered, drawing confused looks from the rest of the group. Kabuto simply nodded and two marks at the top of the cards changed from question marks to the Konoha symbol on the top left, and the mark of the Country of Fire in the top-center. He blanked the cards out again and stuck them back in the deck, while drawing another.

"Anyway..." Kabuto said while revealing the information on the card. It showed a map, with small chakra 'holograms' coming from each of the countries represented, the largest by far over the Country of Fire, with lines originating from each country and ending at the bottom of the card where a number was shown. "These are the total number of examinees and countries participating." He paused slightly as he pressed down on the card and a poof of smoke erupted from it, revealing the number at the top to have been changed from 153 to 156 and the number under the Fire Country to have been changed from 72 to 75. "It also has the number of participants from each hidden village." The card showed thirty participants for Sand, twenty-one for Rain, fifteen for Grass, twelve for Waterfall, seventy-five for Leaf, and three for Sound. The conversation turned to the purpose behind the Chuunin exams, which Kabuto claimed was to confirm the level of ninja in each country and balance out the power. This was met with mostly confusion from Naruto. Kabuto blanked out his map-card and returned it to the deck, and explained that if they did not balance out the power, the weaker countries would be invaded by the stronger ones, so they needed to check and restrain each other's powers. Kabuto then continued to say that it was simply his theory.

_Theory nothing,_ Kayuu thought to himself, as Ateshi's thoughts went along a similar path. _He knows exactly what the reason for it is._

Sasuke stepped forward. "Are there any cards that have detailed personal information?"

"Yes," Kabuto answered, "Is there someone that interests you?"

"Yes." Sasuke replied.

"The information of this exam's examinees are not perfect, but I've burned and saved them," Kabuto warned, "They include information about the nine of you, as well. Tell me whatever you know about the people you know that interest you. I'll look them up for you."

"Sabaku no Gaara from the Hidden Village of Sand, and Rock Lee from Konoha." Sasuke told him.

"Oh, you know their names. This won't take much time." Kabuto said. The group was silent save for the crunching of the chubby boy's chips. "Here we go."

"Show me." Sasuke said sternly.

"First, let's look at Rock Lee." Kabuto said while spinning the card. "He's one year older than you. Mission experience, twenty D-rank and eleven C-rank. The squad leader is Gai. His taijutsu skills have increased dramatically in the past year, but his other skills are terrible. He got everyone's attention last year as a skilled rookie Genin, but didn't take the Chuunin exam. This is his first time taking it, like you. His team is composed of Tenten and Hyuuga Neji."

Kayuu looked at the card closer and recognized the girl in the teammate boxes. "Hey, it's Miss Cuteness. Oi! Ateshi! Your girlfriend's on the same team as the freak in the spandex!" He was met with an anguished cry from Ateshi, sending laughter through the crowd once more.

"Next, let's see Sabaku no Gaara." Kabuto said while again spinning a blank card, catching Kayuu's attention. "Mission experience, eight C-rank...this is amazing! One B-rank as a Genin. He is a foreign ninja and it's his first time taking the Chuunin exam, so I don't have any more information on him. But...it appears that he has returned from all of his missions unharmed." This surprised the entire group, and even the lazy boy in the fishnet shirt had a surprised look on his face. The faces of the entire group grew pensive at this. Kabuto changed the topic of the discussion to the various villages that were participating in the exam, and since Sound had been recently created, he had little information on them. He placed his cards back into his deck, while saying that either way, all of the villages were powerful.

"I'm starting to lose confidence..." The shy girl said quietly.

"It's too late for that!" Ino yelled.

"In other words, the examinees here are all..." Sakura started.

"Right. It's not only Lee or Gaara. All of the shinobi here are the top elite chosen from each country."

Naruto appeared to be trembling, which did not go unnoticed by Kayuu, Ateshi, and Rikka, and Sakura appeared worried. She stepped forward and told him he didn't need to be scared, but he simply turned to the group of examinees and yelled at all of them. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I'm not going to lose to any of you! Got that!?" Kayuu slapped his hand to his forehead in exasperation, and Rikka walked over to him, stared him straight in the eye despite being at least half a head shorter than him, and spoke in a deadly quiet voice.

"Shut. Up. Pineapple." She demanded.

Sakura turned to her rival and asked "Did she just call him a pineapple?"

To which Ino replied "I think so." Rikka's threat, however, failed to wipe the smile off of his face, and if anything, lightened his mood further.

"Oi. You all know my name. How about giving me yours?" Kayuu asked the group, taking off his sunglasses.

"Inuzuka Kiba! And this is Akamaru!"

"Akamichi Chouji."

"Nara Shikamaru."

"Uchiha Sasuke."

"Aburame Shino."

"H-H-Hyuuga Hinata."

"You already know my name!" Naruto finished loudly, just before being put into a stranglehold by his pink-haired teammate.

"You need to QUIET DOWN!" Sakura screamed. Kayuu watched all of this in both amusement and confusion. _Aren't they teammates?_

"I just said the truth!" Naruto said despite the restriction on his airways.

Sakura paused at the intense killer intent filling the room and tried to placate the crowd by passing Naruto off as an idiot, then threatened to beat Naruto silly. Kayuu sensed an attack coming as Sakura continued to berate Naruto for his actions, and dashed in front of Kabuto as he reacted, grabbing the kunai a sound shinobi had thrown and tossing it back, to little effect, causing Kabuto to back flip away. Another sound-nin quickly came up on Kabuto and threw a punch, only to be caught by Ateshi who seemingly appeared out of thin air. "You interrupted my nap." Ateshi said simply, while the sound-nin smirked under his bandages, despite his hand bleeding from Ateshi's fingernails digging into his hand. Suddenly, Kabuto's glasses cracked, and Ateshi looked back, only for them both to suddenly drop to their knees. Kabuto dropped onto all fours and began vomiting, while Ateshi stayed on his knees while supporting himself with a fist, holding most of his stomach contents down while coughing violently.

The one in bandages said "You're not as good as I thought for a veteran who took the exam four years running." Another one of the group, one with spiky hair, spoke up.

"Write this on your cards. The three from the Sound Village are definitely going to become Chuunins." At this point, Ateshi began a sequence of hand seals, only to be kicked by Kayuu, dropping to the ground in his weakened state. Kayuu glared at him, his eyes cold. Sasuke looked at Kayuu, and thought to himself _Did his eyes change...?_

At that moment, a large cloud of smoke exploded at the front of the room, and a booming voice yelled out "Quiet down, you punks!" Tense moments went by as the smoke slowly cleared, finally revealing a scarred man glaring at the crowd, along with a large group of Jounin behind him. "Sorry to keep you waiting. I am the examiner of the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki." He pointed to the back of the room, where the altercation had taken place, and yelled "You three from the Hidden Sound Village! Don't think you can do anything you want before the exam starts! Do you want us to fail you already?"

The one in the bandages turned to the examiner. "I'm sorry. I was excited, since this is my first exam." Kayuu scoffed and returned his shades to his face.

Ibiki smirked. "This is a good chance to say this...you are not allowed to fight each other during the exam, unless given permission by the examiners. Even if the permission is given, you are not allowed to kill the other. Pigs who go against me will fail immediately. Understood?"

The sound-nin with spiky hair grinned maliciously. "This exam seems so soft and easy."

The examiners chuckled. "We will know begin the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam. Turn in your applications, take one of the number tags, and sit where it tells you to. Then we will pass out the papers for the written exam."

_Well, that explains the seating arrangement._ Ateshi thought to himself.

"_A paper test!?_" Naruto yelled, causing Kayuu, Ateshi, and Rikka to wince in pain at the volume. Rikka glared at him.

Minutes later, all of the prospective Chuunin were seated at their respective seats, all waiting for the signal to begin. Ibiki tapped the chalkboard with a piece of chalk to gain the attention of the crowd.

"The First Exam has a few important rules. I will not accept any questions, so listen carefully. The first rule is, you're all given ten points at the start. The written exam consists of ten questions, each worth one point. This test is a deduction based test. If you get one problem wrong, you will get one point deducted. If you get three questions wrong, your points will be reduced to seven. Second rule, the pass-fail decision will be based on your team's total points." This caused an angry reaction from Sakura, who was silenced by Ibiki who said there was a reason for it, telling her to shut up and listen.

_My ear-drums thank you._ Kayuu thought to himself.

"Now that you know, let's move on to the next rule. If an examiner determines you cheated or something similar during the course of the test, each action will cause you to lose two points. In other words, there will be people who will be forced to leave this place without their tests being graded. Those who try to cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves." Ibiki continued.

Kayuu grinned. _So they WANT us to cheat._

One of the examiners chose this time to speak up. "We'll 'check' you at any time." The fear and anxiety in the room grew tenfold.

"You are all trying to become Chuunins. If you are a ninja, act like a first-rate one. Also, if anyone in the team gets a zero, the rest of the team fails as well." This statement sent a ripple of shock through the room. "The last problem will be given forty-five minutes into the exam." Confusion was then added to the feelings of shock, fear, and anxiety. "You have one hour for the exam." Nervousness joined the boiling pot of emotions. The clock struck 4:30 exactly, and Ibiki's shout of "Begin!" echoed through the room. The sound of shuffling papers filled the room as the Genin got good looks at their tests. Kayuu simply ran through the questions, their difficulty level reinforcing his belief that the examiners wanted them to cheat. He smirked. _This is gonna be fun._

Rikka looked at the test and smiled. _Child's play,_ she thought to herself. She looked over at Kayuu, who was grinning. _He knows what we're supposed to do. I bet he's having fun._ She then looked over at Ateshi, who was slamming his head against the desk. _And...he's just stupid._ She looked back down at her test and speedily began writing out her answers.

Ateshi skimmed over the questions, and slammed his head into his desk, paused for a moment, and repeated this action several times. His head then immediately shot back up with a happy expression on his face, which quickly sank into a look of gloom. _I got nothin'. What the hell does this have to do with being a shinobi, anyway...? Whatever. This is stupid._ He put his hands under the desk and quickly ran through a set of discreet hand seals, summoning a small red-orange fox. It leapt onto his hidden knee, and he tore off a piece of his test, drawing incredulous stares from everyone around him, and wrote out a small note explaining the fox's instructions. Short, and to the point. "Get small. Steal answers to test." It nodded and transformed into a fly, and began buzzing around the room before deciding on a target.

Kayuu was thinking of several different ways to cheat, trying to decide on the best one. He looked up in thought out of habit, and his eyes widened in surprise, hidden behind his shades. He was looking at a mirror on the ceiling, being manipulated by wires. He chanced a glance backwards, and saw with some amusement that they were being manipulated by that girl Ateshi liked. _What was her name...Tintin...Tonton...Tenten! That's it._ He picked up his secondary pencil and snapped a piece off the top, taking careful aim and flicking it at the bottom of the mirror, knocking it into the perfect position for him to read off of someone else's test. He smirked and began copying what he could before Tenten noticed and moved the mirror back into place. This process consumed another three pieces of Kayuu's pencil before he had copied the entire test, and when he chanced another glance backwards, the Tenten girl was glaring at him with promises of pain in her eyes. He chuckled to himself and picked up the last piece of his pencil, meticulously calculated the trajectory, and flicked the pencil piece, ricocheting it off the ceiling directly into the back of Ateshi's head. _I'm good..._ Kayuu thought smugly to himself as his chuckles slowly evolved into laughter, temporarily drawing the attention of everyone in the room before he could calm himself.

Ateshi had been waiting for nearly half an hour before his fox finally returned. "Where have you been?" He whispered.

"I talked with Mr. Bug Man!" The fox said happily. A silence passed between them.

"Whatever. What're the answers?" Ateshi asked, and the fox began feeding him the answers in a droll, childish manner.

Slowly but surely, the clock ticked closer and closer to the forty-five minute mark. Many teams were disqualified, some went quietly, some even had to be 'escorted' out. One participant even asked to go to the bathroom in the middle of it. Finally, Ibiki spoke. "Okay! Now I'll give the final question!" He gave this some time to sink in, then spoke again. "Yes, but before that, there's one thing I must say...there's a special rule for the tenth question." Before he could continue, however, the one who had asked to go to the bathroom, Kankuro, returned. "You're lucky." Ibiki told him. "Your little puppet show didn't go to waste. Oh well, sit down." Kankuro did so, and Ibiki continued. "I will now explain. This is...a hopeless rule." The room waited for him to continue, the tension in the room building to an almost unbearable level. "First, you are all going to choose if you want to take this tenth problem or not." Surprise rippled through the minds of all the test-takers still present. One of them, a female from Sand, yelled out.

"Choose? So what happens if we don't take the tenth problem?" She asked. This was the furthest thing from Kayuu's mind as he looked at the girl. _She's cute,_ he thought to himself.

"If you choose not to take it your points will be reduced to zero." Ibiki grinned sadistically. "In other words, you will fail." Nearly everyone in the room recoiled in shock. "Your other two teammates will fail along with you."

Kayuu smirked. _So the pressure is on._

Ateshi let out a small grunt. _It doesn't matter._

Rikka snickered. _What idiocy..._

"And here is the other rule. If you choose to take it and get it wrong...you will lose the privilege to take the Chuunin Exam ever again!" The room became dead silent at those words. That is, until the Inuzuka kid decided to speak his mind.

"What kind of dumb rule is that!?" Kiba yelled. Kayuu groaned. _Is ALL of Konoha this damn loud!? It'll be a wonder if they even GET stealth missions anymore!_ Kiba, however, continued to speak. "There are people here who have taken the Chuunin exam before!" His dog decided to put in his two cents with a couple of short yips.

Ibiki simply chuckled, and continued darkly. "You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That is why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year, or the year after that." He chuckled again, before adopting a serious face. "Let us begin. Those who will not be taking this tenth question, raise your hands. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."

The silence was oppressive. Finally, a Konoha shinobi raised his hand. "I...I...I quit! I won't take it!"

"Number 50, fail. Numbers 130 and 111 fail along with him." One of the examiners said.

"I'm sorry...Gennai, Inaho." The Genin said. Him quitting opened the floodgates, and people began snapping left and right. Then, Kayuu and Ateshi noticed Naruto's quivering hand raise into the air. Rikka simply wasn't paying attention.

_Come on, Uzumaki, you're not the type to quit like this...!_ Kayuu thought to himself. Ateshi just gazed intently at Naruto, waiting to see what he did next.

Naruto surprised everyone in the room by slamming his hand onto his desk and yelling at Ibiki. "Screw you! I'm not going to run away! I'll take this problem! Even if I become a Genin forever, I'm going to become Hokage no matter what anyway!" He then stood up and continued. "I'm not scared!" He finished, and sat back down, the tension and atmosphere broken.

Ateshi thrust a fist into the air and yelled out "_You show 'em, Uzumaki!_" Kayuu, however, simply broke out into hysterical laughter, slamming his fist repeatedly into his desk, finally calming down after over half a minute, and brought his head back up, wiping tears from his eyes.

Ibiki spoke again, trying to recapture the lost atmosphere of tension and uncertainty. "I will ask you one more time. This is the choice that will impact your life. If you want to quit, now is your chance."

Naruto simply grinned and replied. "I'm not going to take back my words. That's my nindo." Ibiki examined the rest of the room, and all of the examiners wore small grins.

"Nice determination. For the first exam, everyone here..." Everyone in the room hung on his words. "Passes!"

* * *

nindo - way of the ninja 


	8. Iron Fist and Iron Will

I'm sorry for taking so long to write another chapter, I've just been out of it lately, getting a job, finishing up high school, all that crap on top of my writing funk. I've been sticking all the work on my co-author, and I even started writing another fic that I haven't started posting yet... Don't worry, this'll be my primary, and I'll try to get it updating more regularly, and frequently. It's odd, but I want to see how this ends just as much as you guys do.

(We only have an outline of the fic's plot up to the timeskip, after the timeskip is still blank though... And for the record, yes. We intend for the plot of this fic to continue until the end of the canon Naruto plot.) Now that it's heating up, getting more interesting, it should be more fun to write, and thus, get written faster.

* * *

"You all pass!" Ibiki yelled. Silence reigned as confusion filled the room. The silence, however, was promptly shattered in the form of a question from Sakura.

"Wait...what do you mean? What about the tenth question?" She asked shakily.

"There never was such a thing," Ibiki said, his face splitting into a large grin which Kayuu immediately deemed extremely unsettling. "Or, you could say that the choice to take the question or not to take the question was, in fact, the tenth question." This caused an outburst from the Sand girl, Temari.

"What!? Then what were the first nine questions for!? Were they pointless!?" This prompted Ibiki to explain that the test was actually a test of their information gathering abilities.

_Makes sense. These guys really mean business._ Kayuu thought to himself, before looking over at Ateshi, who seemed to be shuddering for some reason.

Of the three, Rikka seemed to be paying the most attention to Ibiki's words. The room held the same atmosphere for the next few minutes, Ibiki continuing to speak, to another outburst from Naruto, until a black mass crashed through the window.

The ball unfolded itself, bits of the cloth tied to kunai sticking into the ceiling and floor, an odd woman in the center of it. "EVERYBODY! There's no time to be happy!" She yelled. "I am the second examiner, Mitarashi Anko! Let's go to the next exam, follow me!"

At this, Ateshi fell back in his chair, laughing hysterically. "It's...too...funny!" He managed between breaths.

_So that's what it was..._ Kayuu thought, sharing the disgruntled look spread throughout the room.

"...Baka..." Rikka muttered under her breath.

Anko sighed heavily before looking over the crowd. "81? Ibiki, you let 27 teams pass? The first test must've been too soft." She said.

"There are a lot of excellent students this time." Ibiki said.

"Oh well... I'm going to make half of the teams fail in the next exam." Anko muttered casually.

At this, a chill went through the room. Ateshi and Kayuu thought the same thing; _Finally, a challenge!_

Rikka sighed in the back of the room. _This is turning out to be more trouble than it's worth... _She thought.

"I will explain the details tomorrow. We will go somewhere else, so ask your Jounin teachers about the rally point and time. That is all. Dismissed!" Anko said, almost angrily. After she had said this, everyone in the room started to rise out of their seats and leave.

When the three met back up outside the testing room, Kayuu immediately erupted with "Hey Ateshi! It's your girlfriend!" Pointing over to Tenten, who was standing with her teammates, receiving congratulations from their overzealous sensei. Immediately, Ateshi knocked Kayuu's legs out from under him, and kicked him across the room, ironically, landing in front of Gai-sensei. "...Hey... it's you. You need to teach me how to do that... kicky... thingy..." He muttered, before losing consciousness, having just received his second major head injury that day by landing on the hard floor face-first before flipping onto his back.

"'Kicky-thingy'?" Lee asked, perplexed.

"He probably means whatever you hit him with... back when you showed up out of nowhere." Ateshi said as he and Rikka walking over.

Several odd looks passed between the six of them, eventually ending in Gai asking "...How old are you?"

"Old enough!" Ateshi instinctively shouted. "Well, what about them? they can't possibly be much older than Rikka!" He added, pointing to Gai's Genin team.

"Sorry, my friend's an idiot." Rikka said, giving Ateshi an ugly look that told him the question was to her before continuing. "I'm twelve."

"Well, he's right... she's not that much younger than us." Tenten said, an odd note of motherly concern in her voice as she continued, "You sure she should be taking the exam?"

"She's got us." Ateshi said, kicking Kayuu's side, "She'll be safe no matter what the next tests are."

"How can you be so sure of your abilities? If you fail-" Lee started, Rikka sighing at how frail they thought she was, before Ateshi spoke up.

"If you want, we can take this outside, and I'll _show_ you how I can be so sure of my skills." He said, before grabbing the back of Kayuu's coat to sling his limp body over his shoulders.

Very little was said after Lee gave a nod of acceptance, and they all walked to a nearby training field. Ateshi set Kayuu up against a tree, and Rikka, Gai, Tenten and Neji stood next to the unconscious boy as Lee and Ateshi took up opposite sides of an open area. "I shall let you make the first move. Strike me if you can." Lee said, shifting into his standard fighting stance.

"You know, underestimating the enemy gets you killed in a real fight..." Ateshi said, dropping low to the ground, almost on all fours, "Just be glad I don't _want_ to kill you." At this, Ateshi dashed forward, at a speed only a shinobi could see. Lee barely had time to block as Ateshi's knee crashed into his chest. Lee slid back about twenty feet, while audible gasps of shock could be heard from the few spectators as Ateshi dashed forward, this time at a far slower pace to begin a barrage of blows.

"I will admit..." Lee said, his voice was strained as if he were having difficulty blocking the attacks, but Ateshi could not land a solid strike against him. "You are both strong and fast, but your attacks lack discipline." He added, landing subsequent blows to Ateshi's stomach and chest, before kicking his chin in a back-flip, knocking him to the ground.

Ateshi leaned up, and said "Well, I was _trying_ not to kill you, y'know..."

"But, you _were_ trying to at least do _some_ harm, am I wrong?" Lee said, what would be considered smug words from anyone else rung with a cold truth coming from Lee.

"Lee is a Taijutsu specialist. You won't be able to beat him in hand-to-hand combat, no matter how strong you are." Gai said, his voice brimming with pride.

"Well, I'm not a _hand-to-hand_ specialist anyway..." Ateshi said, drawing the short swords from the sheaths on his lower legs as he rose, moving into an offensive stance.

"That's enough!" Tenten said, running out between them.

"OI! Let the boys kill each other. Rid the world of at least _one_ of these idiots." Rikka said, almost shouting, as she nudged Kayuu with her foot, indicating she was talking about her teammates.

"'Ey! That really hurts you know!" Ateshi groaned.

"We don't know what kind of exams are next, beating each other up may be the worst possible thing right now..." Tenten said, reasserting her position as the voice of reason in the conflict.

"Okay... Boya, I'm lettin' you off easy now, but after this damned exam is over, I'm beatin' the hell outta' ya'." Ateshi said, as he sheathed his blades.

"I would say the same to you, if I knew your name..." Lee said, his arms lowered back to his sides.

"Ateshi." He said, "Kensukai Ateshi. That's Rikka, and that lump over there is Kayuu."

"Well then, Kensukai-kun, I look forward to our battle after the Chuunin exam." Lee said, bowing, when a small stone struck the back of his head.

"Never take your eyes off the enemy." Ateshi said, as the foot he used to kick the rock returned to the ground. When he turned to walk away, he added, "Combat 101."

"Now... how to wake this one up...?" Rikka asked, smiling broadly as she pulled a kunai out of the pouch like pocket of her hoodie.

"GRAAAH! What the hell!?" Kayuu yelled, falling over himself to roll away from Rikka, who had just poked the side of his stomach with her knife. "Am I... Is that blood? You stabbed me!"

"No I didn't. You'll be fine." Rikka said, pocketing the blade.

"You're making a terrible fuss over a _scratch_." Tenten said as she and Lee walked over.

"Oi... Why is your girl making fun of me?" Kayuu asked while tending to his various wounds.

"What's with all this 'girlfriend' crap I keep hearing from him?" Neji asked, irritated.

Tenten blushed and immediately spoke up. "There's nothing! I don't know what they're talking about! Why do you keep saying those things!?" She asked, obviously flustered for some reason.

"Heh... why not ask lover-boy?" Kayuu asked, grinning maliciously.

In moments, all eyes fell on Ateshi, who began scrambling for coherent words. "I-I said she was _cute_, all right!? I didn't _mean_ anything by it! He's just being an ass over it, and won't lay off!"

"Tch..." They heard, and all turned their heads to Neji. "You actually think she's _cute_?"

Ateshi inhaled slowly, and said; "Yes, I _do_. What are you, _blind_?" Neji glared at him, and at the sight of his abnormally light eyes he added "You _are_!?"

"No, I'm NOT!" Neji yelled, the intensity of his glare multiplying tenfold.

Ateshi sighed heavily. "That's good... and here I thought I'd have to hit a blind boy..."

Neji ducked as Ateshi's left arm quickly took the space his skull had previously filled, administering a few quick jabs to various points on his arm. As Ateshi's arm fell limp at his side, Neji said, pridefully; "Tch, you really are too slow..."

After shrugging a few times, his left arm flopping at his side, Ateshi frowned, and began running through hand seals with his functional hand. "You can't use that!" Kayuu yelled, kicking the back of Ateshi's knee, the boy collapsing instantly, his jutsu interrupted. "You'll kill him!"

"Bad for diplomacy." Rikka said solemnly.

"You, kill _me_? You'll _never_ be able to kill me." Neji boasted, turning to leave.

"Buddy, I'd help you up, but... _injured_." Kayuu said smugly, laying back, smiling broadly as he propped his head up with his hands. Ateshi sighed, and leaned up using his good arm. He glance up at Tenten, his shameful defeat reflected in his blood-red eyes. She blushed slightly before running after Neji. "You've got _some_ way with women, y'know..." Kayuu added, resisting the urge to chuckle at his teammate's misfortune. The act earned him a light kick in the ribs from Rikka.

"Thanks." Ateshi said, sitting up.

"He deserved it." Rikka replied.

Lee bowed, saying "That was a good match, I look forward to our next fight Kensukai-kun." before leaving to follow his teammates.

When his Genin were gone, Gai stepped forward, asking "That was a single-handed jutsu, right?"

"Yeah, so what if it was?" Ateshi asked, working his way to his feet.

"That's quite rare. In fact, I've never seen anything like it before... I'd suggest you speak to the Hokage about it after the exam." Gai said, despite sounding more solemn than usual, there was still something about his voice that seemed unsettling to the trio.

"Okay, we'll do that." Kayuu said, still laying peacefully on the grass, Ateshi nodding shortly afterward.

Uneasy of Kayuu's halfhearted reply, Gai disappeared in a gust of wind. "Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Ateshi asked, grabbing Kayuu by his coat, flinging him over his shoulders again.

"What're you doing!?" Kayuu asked as he struggled in Ateshi's grip.

"You're too injured to get up, right? I'm just helping you along." Ateshi said smugly.

"Dammit! This is embarrassing!" Kayuu yelled, continuing his struggle.

"We should be home before sunset." Rikka said, leading the way along the path back into the urban area of the village.

"And we need to start now to do that." Ateshi added.

"You know... some of us actually _like_ being up after dark... Hello? Ugh... I give up..." Kayuu rambled, eventually going limp as the three headed home to rest up for the next day.

* * *

The basic structure of the OC team follows the more common team schematic found in the series, Kayuu, the balanced leader of the team (Orochimaru, Sasuke, or Kakashi) Ateshi, the power-house pain in the ass (Jiraiya, Naruto, or Obito) and Rikka, the genius kunoichi healer that keeps the team working (Tsunade, Sakura, or Rin)

I'd like to make sure it's known that Ateshi did in fact _hit_ Lee, but when he did, he never could with enough force to actually _hurt _him. I know, it's sad, but they don't know Lee's gonna wind up messed up after the prelims. Eh, we'll see what happens...

Yes, Ateshi could've killed Neji if Kayuu hadn't kicked him. At that distance, Neji wouldn't've been able to use his Kaiten in time. If Neji DID have time to use his Kaiten, then no, it wouldn't. You'll get to see what the attack is, in due time. Ironically, the first time he uses it is to _defend_ Neji. evil chuckle

No, Kayuu wasn't too injured to help Ateshi up. He was just being an ass because it was Ateshi who injured him. Put simply... they don't get along... at all.

Gai meant 'after the exam' as in, 'the first point at which he can that the exam is not currently underway' as in, in about five days. Not 'a month or so from now' when the exam'd actually be _over_. And yes, it has been proven that single-hand Jutsu are both rare and _possible_. Haku used a Jutsu (albeit a Kekkei Genkai related jutsu, but the point remains the same) against Sasuke, and Kakashi notes that he's never seen a Jutsu performed with a single hand before. If Kakashi hasn't seen it, it's rare, and that's that.

To be completely clear about this, Rikka's personality was completely mapped before we ever really started into the fic. If she _could_ summon anything, it'd be some sort of cat. She was _always_ planned to be the 'lovable bitch'. Stern and evil most of the time, but warm and nurturing when it really matters. However, she never seems to show the latter side around Ateshi and Kayuu... Really, she talked a _lot_ more than I planned for her to this chapter... hmm...

Boya - It's actually Japanese for 'boy', in katakana, but where I used it, I'm not using the Japanese version, it just sounds like what he'd say there...

Kaiten - Heavenly spin (Referring to Neji's Hakkesho Kaiten, or 'Eight Triagrams Palms Heavenly Spin')


	9. The Second Exam

This is what happens when you get out of your writer's block. Two chapters in a week.

* * *

The three were up early, ate breakfast, and had enough spare time to resume their exploration of Konoha before a Jounin who introduced himself as Asuma found them, and let them know where to go. In the end, they made their way there about the same time as everyone else was arriving, and used the time before the examiner arrived to examine their current surroundings. There was a large fence around a dense forest, upon the gate were tattered and foreboding signs that said 'forbidden', and a booth with three ninja off to one side. When the examiner appeared, she began speaking almost immediately. "This is where the second exam will take place. The 44th training area... also known as the Forest of Death."

Several distraught murmurs were heard through the crowd as an ominous wind blew between them, but none could tell who were speaking, as none made any movements to distinguish their emotions. Until of course an odd box with eyeholes, drawn upon somewhat haphazardly to look like a rock, began chasing Naruto around. A sight which Kayuu and Ateshi found hilarious, and everyone around them knew how much they wanted to laugh, no matter how hard they fought to keep it in. But when he stopped the box, and began arguing with it, the two collapsed on the grass and rolled around in a fit of laughter. When Rikka walked over to calm the situation, she overheard something about a school newspaper. The examiner intersected them before she could however, and noted that she'd forgotten about it. _Why does she remind me of a certain trio of idiots_?

"All right!" Anko yelled, to gain the attention of the crowd, "We're going to have a ten minute break now. If you are asked any questions, just concede and cooperate quietly."

Rikka walked back to Ateshi and Kayuu, who were still standing where she left them. Although they seemed to be glaring at each other, but upon closer inspection, they were looking _past_ each other. Kayuu at the group of Sand nin they encountered their first day in Konoha, and Ateshi at the Leaf nin from the previous day. After sighing heavily, Rikka said; "If you two want to talk to them, then go _talk_. We've _got_ ten minutes."

"Who said I want to talk to her?" The two asked in unison.

"I never said 'her'." Rikka said, smiling. A look of horror creeping across the boys' faces. "I guess I'll just have to go talk to them, then, huh?"

"No! I mean..." Ateshi started, unable to find the words to make his case plausible.

Kayuu sighed heavily and said, "Fine... we'll talk to them." Before he and Ateshi went in opposite directions, Rikka smiling broadly, wondering who to watch.

---

Ateshi silently walked up behind Neji, wondering what to say when the Hyuuga asked; "What do you want?"

Perplexed and flustered, Ateshi walked up closer now that he'd lost the element of surprise. "I just... came over to say hi... wish you guys luck, eh?" Ateshi said, stringing together several shreds of a proper excuse.

"We don't _need_ your luck." Neji said, his voice bordering on enragement.

"I was just hoping I'd see you again before I passed this damned test..." Ateshi said, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"You'll never make Chuunin before we do. Just give up now and save yourself the embarrassment." Neji said, almost as if growling angrily.

"Tch... sounds like a challenge to me..." Ateshi said, leaning forward before adding, "You wanna' make a wager of it?"

"What do you mean?" Lee asked.

"A bet. With stakes." Ateshi said, before adding sarcastically; "If I make Chuunin first, you do something of my choosing, and if one of you three makes Chuunin first, I do what whatever you decide."

"I know what a bet is!" Neji shouted, Ateshi finally wearing away at the last of his patience.

"Oookaaay... let's see..." Ateshi said, pacing around for a moment before chuckling and turning back to the trio, adding; "I win, I get a date with missy here."

This brought several remarks of outrage from Neji, while Tenten blushed, trying to say something coherent through her rage, and Lee merely said "That seems quite inappropriate, but..."

"And if you win?" Ateshi asked through their various words.

At this, Tenten quickly walked up to him, an echo throughout the entire crowd as her palm stuck his cheek. "Never speak to us again!" She roared.

"Right." Ateshi said, rubbing his cheek before continuing with an idiotic grin on his face. "I win, I get a date. You win, I piss off. Well, see you after this is over, eh?"

"What!?" The three asked, each in their own shade of rage.

"I'm going to go check out the competition. You three just try to make it to the end of the exams." Ateshi said, silencing the three with an uncharacteristically commanding tone.

---

Kayuu approached his situation far differently. He kept his distance until he knew what he wanted to say. However, this didn't go as planned either, when Kankuro said, "Hey, it's another one of those pests..." when Kayuu got near.

"Yeah. Nice to know I rank higher than shit as far as you're concerned." He said instinctively, catching the sand ninja's attention. "You remember me from the other day?"

"You were with those brats... weren't you? What do _you_ want?" Temari asked.

"Well, I _was_ going to wish you good luck with the rest of the exam, but _now_ I just feel terrible that you're underestimating me _that_ much..." Kayuu said, the words coming naturally, almost with unnerving ease.

"Tch... like there's any skill there to _underestimate_." Temari scoffed.

"I feel... so very abused..." Kayuu said sarcastically. "Hoy, giggles, what do you think?"

This earned no response from Gaara, as his attention was elsewhere, his words struck a nerve with the other two though. "What do you think you're _doing_!? Don't call him anything like that or he'll _kill_ you!" Temari whispered angrily, trying to keep Gaara from overhearing while inching the two of them away.

"Well what're you so scared about, he's _your_ teammate, right? It's not like he'd kill you guys over something _I_ said, right?" Kayuu asked, the two glaring at him in confirmation. "Well... shit. Why do you guys stick around then?"

"He's our brother. We don't have much choice." Kankuro grumbled.

After looking at each of the three in turn, Kayuu stated; "You guys must have one screwed up family..."

"Why are you here again?" Kankuro asked angrily.

"I'm just researching my competition. The fact that you're not doing the same suggests that you are quite sure of your skills." Kayuu said, shifting back into his more serious visage.

"Yes, we've got good reason to be sure of our skills. How many missions have _you_ been on?" Temari asked.

"One hundred twenty-three." Kayuu answered abruptly.

Surprised, Temari asked "What ranks?"

"Ranks?" Kayuu asked, a little confused.

"Mission difficulty ranks. Obviously you must not have gone on many if you don't even know what ranks they were..." She said sarcastically.

"Hmm... sixty-eight recon missions, forty-two front-line posts, six raids, four escort assignments, two suicide missions, and..." Kayuu said, listing off his service record, pausing at his last mission.

"That's 122. You said 123." Temari said, Kankuro nodding in agreement.

"And one genocidal assault on another shinobi village... Second wave point position."

As Kayuu said this, an odd glance passed between the sand ninja before Kankuro asked; "You helped destroy an entire village?"

"No, I didn't want to kill anyone else, so I ran." Kayuu said, clenching his fists. "I guess I failed that one, huh? Instead of doing what I was supposed to, I ran. I ran from the conflict with one of the enemy and the village girl we were supposed to kill."

The two were dumbfounded, unable to find any sort of reasoning behind why he would tell them this. "I..." Temari started, but soon found she couldn't say any more.

"I don't even know why I'm so angry... I did the right thing..." Kayuu said, his voice strained.

"Why... are you telling us this?" Temari finally asked.

"I guess I just needed to say it to someone... Needed to get it off my chest... I guess you were just the first people I felt comfortable saying it to since I got here..." Kayuu said, turning away as if to leave, but instead paused for a moment in thought.

Temari reached her hand out to comfort him when the examiner started yelling again. "ALL RIGHT! Now that that's done, we can get back to the exam! Soon, you will be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death."

Kayuu quickly said "I should get back..." before leaving to rejoin his team.

At the examiner's words, Naruto began mockingly dancing about, saying "You will be able to experience why this place is called the Forest of Death." After he was done, he stood straight and added; "There's no point in trying to scare us like that! I'm not scared at all!"

"Really? You sure are energetic." She said, before dropping a kunai out of her sleeve and throwing it at Naruto, grazing his cheek. "Boys like you die the fastest. After spilling that red blood I love all over the place." She added, pulling his head closer to her, wiping the blood away with her finger.

"Another girl perfect for Ateshi. Twice his age, but still..." Kayuu said, Rikka chuckling while Ateshi started glaring at him.

A member of one of the other teams came up behind her, and she nearly struck the grass ninja down with a second kunai from her sleeve, but they were merely there to return the first, holding it in an abnormally long tongue. "Now that's just creepy..." Ateshi said, with nods of agreement from Kayuu and Rikka.

"So, why didn't one of you block that kunai?" Rikka asked as the conversation between Anko and the grass ninja concluded.

"It wasn't going to hit him." They answered in unison.

Anko spoke again as she neared the front of the crowd. "Before we begin the second exam, I'm going to pass these out to everyone." She said, bringing a stack of papers labeled 'consent form'. A wave of unease swept over the crowd as a result. "These are consent forms. Those taking this test must sign these."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"From here on, people will die. Therefore, we need people's consent before we continue." She said, before adding happily; "Otherwise, I'd be held responsible."

"Finally, something _interesting_." Ateshi said as a grin came over Kayuu's face.

"Now, I will begin the explanation of the second exam. To be concise, you will all go through an extreme survival match." She said, handing the papers to Naruto, who took one, and passed the stack on.

When the papers got around to Ateshi, he took three, and handed the stack on, giving one to Kayuu and Rikka, before asking "What was your best term on the field?"

"Forty-two days." Kayuu answered.

"Damn... and here I thought my thirty was good..." Ateshi said, chuckling.

"So we shouldn't have any trouble?" Rikka asked.

"No problem." Kayuu answered.

"First, I'll explain the training area's geographical features." Anko said, unrolling a small map with one hand. "The 44th training area is a circular region surrounded by 44 locked gate entrances. There is a river, a forest, and a tower in the middle. The tower is approximately ten kilometers away from the gates. Inside this limited space, you will have to go through a certain survival program." Rolling up the map, again with a single hand, she continued; "The program consists of... A competition where anything goes... Over these scrolls." She said, holding up two different scrolls. "The Scroll of Heaven, and the Scroll of the Earth. You will fight over these scrolls. 27 teams total passed the first exam. Half of these teams will get the Scroll of Heaven. The other half will get the Scroll of the Earth. The last team will randomly get one of the two."

"OI! We'll be the odd team." Kayuu said, Anko nodded before continuing.

"Each team will get one of these scrolls. Simply, you have to fight over these."

"And? What's needed to pass?" Sasuke asked.

"Bring the Scrolls of Heaven and Earth to the tower with your teammates." Anko answered.

"In other words, the thirteen or so teams, or half the people here, that get their scroll stolen will fail." Sakura said.

"But it needs to be done within the time limit." Anko said. "This second exam has a time limit of 120 hours, or exactly five days."

"Five days?" Ino shouted.

"What about food?" Chouji asked.

"Scrounge it up yourself." Anko said. "The forest is a treasure box of nature. There should be plenty of food."

"However..." Kabuto started, "There are a lot of man-eating beasts, poisonous bugs, and poisonous plants."

"Oh no..." Chouji groaned.

"Stupid, that's why it's called survival." Ino said.

Neji was next to speak; "Also, it's not possible for 13 teams, or 39 people, to pass."

"As time passes, you will be required to move more. So, the time to the rest of your body will become shorter. This seems quite rough." Lee said eagerly.

"And we're surrounded by enemies. We won't be able to sleep in peace." Sasuke added.

"Reminds me of home..." Kayuu muttered.

"People will get hurt in the process of fighting over a scroll, and those who cannot bear this program's strictness will emerge as well." Anko said.

"Excuse me, can we quit in between?" Shikamaru asked.

"As a rule, you are not allowed to give up during the exam. You will spend the five days in the forest." Anko answered.

"Just as I thought... How troublesome." Shikamaru said, his voice a unique mixture of boredom and frustration.

Anko continued; "While we're on this topic, here are the conditions that will fail you: first, a team that cannot bring both scrolls to the tower with all three team members will fail. Second, a team that loses a teammate or produces an unrecoverable teammate will fail. Also, just as a note... you are not allowed to look inside the scrolls until you reach the tower."

"What happens if you look?" Naruto asked.

"That's a surprise you'll see when you look at it." Anko said playfully, continuing in a more serious voice; "If you become a Chuunin, you will be handling top secret documents. It's to determine your reliability. That is it for the explanation. We will exchange three consent forms for a scroll at the hut... and after picking your gate entrance, everyone will begin at the same time." She sighed before finishing; "Here's a last piece of advice; _don't die_."

"Well, let's go ahead and do as the lady says, eh?" Ateshi chuckled.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we'll get through this without too much trouble... as long as we don't try to stay very long." Kayuu said. "The longer we're in there, the more desperate and violent the other teams are going to be."

"And the faster we get there, the more _bored_ we're gonna be _waiting for them_." Ateshi said before turning around, and when he realized he was face-to-face with the examiner, he simply said; "Yo."

"You must be those new Genin everyone's talking about... You stand out enough." Anko said. "You, with white hair and dark skin, a little girl with silver hair, and..."

Anko paused when she saw Kayuu close-up. "Aaand...?" Kayuu asked.

"You... look a lot... like _him_..." Anko muttered, a bit confused.

"'Him'? Who's 'him'?" Ateshi asked.

"'He'." Rikka said, pointing out Ateshi's bad grammar. "Who is '_he_'."

Anko smiled, and said; "Then again, you look a lot different, too. Sorry for that... You all should head over to get your scroll soon if you plan on finishing the exam."

"Can't we just keep _this_ one?" Rikka said, holding up a Heaven scroll.

"What!?" Anko shouted, perplexed as she went through her pockets, and found that the Heaven scroll from the explanation was missing. "How did you..."

"_Pleeeease_?" Rikka asked, holding the scroll between her forefingers, looking up at Anko sadly. "It's a lot prettier than the other one..."

_How did she take it!? WHEN did she take it?_ Anko thought, deciding it was better to just leave the matter alone. "Ugh... all right... hand me your consent forms, and _hide that scroll_. Remember, _you're_ the odd team. _You've_ got the extra." She said, taking the forms and walking away.

"How the _hell_ you keep on doing that, I don't think I'll ever know..." Kayuu said, glancing at Rikka out of the corner of his eye.

"Have I ever told you that you scare me? Because you do..." Ateshi said, and Rikka just chuckled and stuck their Heaven scroll in her pocket.

Then, the three heard the call for consent forms. "Why did she tell us to go just now? She's too damn confusing..." Ateshi groaned.

"We'll wait for the other teams to finish, then go assign ourselves a gate." Kayuu said while staring into the forest.

"Okay... then we _wait_..." Ateshi said, falling backward onto the sparse grass under him.

Soon all, or at least most of the teams had gotten their scrolls, and Rikka led the way to get a gate number. When they finished, they heard Anko yell; "If you have received a scroll, follow the person in charge and move to your designated gates. We will begin in 30 minutes!"

When they finally arrived at their gate, it was only a few minutes before the start of the exam. Soon, they were let into the training area. "So, where to now?" Ateshi asked playfully.

* * *

The aforementioned 'trio of idiots' are; Naruto, Kayuu, and Ateshi. (Naruto really is an idiot, Kayuu is unjustly called thus, and Ateshi is somewhere between the two.)

All this 'school report' stuff was a filler special, so I'm not sure if it was ever aired in English (I kinda... didn't keep up with the English anime until recently. ) So, if it wasn't, now you know where that's from. It DID however, give us a perfect chance for some character development, so we put it in.

YES. Kayuu called Gaara GIGGLES. It's odd, but when Kayuu isn't trying to be serious, he acts a bit like Ateshi, and when Ateshi actually acts serious, he's quite a bit like Kayuu.

I wanted _sooo_ bad to have Kayuu say "Mondai Nai" Instead of "No Problem". I just _love_ how it sounds, and it means the same thing! Buuut... it didn't really work into how we want to use Japanese in the fic.

Rikka is apparently a skilled pickpocket... (Really, Anko was just a little out of it for a while when she saw Kayuu, who _does_ look a tidbit like Orochimaru, but not enough to actually confuse the two. Anyway, her mind was gone enough for Rikka to do her thing.) It's those tiny hands I tell you... _tiny_...

We didn't know who all got what gate, so we just didn't bother saying a gate number for the OC team.


	10. The Forest of Death

Well, they're FINALLY in.

Now to figure out what they _do_... (grumbles inaudibly)

And yes. They start out just casually walking through the forest. None of that shinobi uberspeed, just... walking.

* * *

When they finally arrived at their gate, it was only a few minutes before the start of the exam. Soon, they were let into the training area. "So, where to now?" Ateshi asked playfully. 

"The tower. We'll find and beat someone on the way." Kayuu said bluntly.

"That's no fun..." Ateshi grumbled.

"We'll stay here three days. Then go to the tower if we have both scrolls by then. Agreed?" Rikka said.

"Sounds fair... eh?" Ateshi asked, walking into the forest.

"Fine." Kayuu said, following behind Rikka.

"We set up a camp. We'll be here three days." Rikka said.

"Might as well just build one shelter and reuse it?" Kayuu asked, and Rikka nodded.

"Okay... best put it by the river then..." Ateshi said. "Might as well get there fast... just set all that up today, work on finding an Earth scroll tomorrow."

"Agreed." Kayuu said firmly.

"Well then, come on girly, I'd better carry you." Ateshi said, stopping so the others could catch up.

"Why?" Kayuu asked.

"Because I'm really fast?" Ateshi asked sarcastically.

"Whatever, let's just _go_." Kayuu said, jumping into the trees, jumping towards the tower.

"Right..." Ateshi said, scooping Rikka off the ground and running along the forest floor.

It wasn't long before the three found the tower and the river. After running about halfway upstream, they started setting up a makeshift hut along the bank. More for Rikka than either of them. It was nearly nightfall before they were finished, despite how hard it was to tell in the dense forest. "Food, water, shelter. Now we need that scroll." Kayuu said, double-checking his equipment.

"I guess that means I'm going scouting... I'm faster than you two. I'll let you know when I find someone." Ateshi said, disappearing into the trees a moment later.

Kayuu sighed, saying; "I guess I'll go get firewood then..."

Ateshi and Kayuu returned almost simultaneously. Ateshi said, pointing; "Grass nin, that'a'way about half a kilometer."

"Okay then, let's go..." Kayuu said, dropping the wood.

"I'm going too." Rikka said, at which the boys shrugged in agreement.

"Aaand here we are..." Ateshi said, about five minutes later when they'd found the rival ninja.

"Any suggestions? Ambush? Frontal assault? Negotiation?" Kayuu asked, by the time he was finished, Rikka had already walked out of the bushes.

"Hey look... It's a little girl... What're you doing here?" The leader of the Grass ninja asked.

"Aren't you a little too _small _to survive in here?" The one of the right asked.

"It doesn't matter. Look, a Leaf headband. We can always trade her to the others for their scroll." The third said.

"You mean you don't have both already?" Rikka asked. "I've got an Earth scroll..."

"Bah... we need a _Heaven_ scroll..." The second Grass nin said.

"She might be bluffing. Who'd leave their scroll with a _little girl_?" The leader asked sarcastically.

"That's good..." Rikka said, regaining their attention as she began running through a long stream of hand seals, holding her hands just over her nose.

"What's she doing?" The third Grass ninja asked.

When Rikka ended her hand seals, The Grass shinobi's bodies tensed. Rikka walked over, and after a short moment of searching, pulled an Earth scroll from the leader's pocket. "Pathetic..." She muttered, walking back into the bushes.

"You know... you really do scare me sometimes..." Ateshi said, inching away slightly as Rikka came near.

"How long will they stay like that?" Kayuu asked.

"I'm surprised they haven't broken out of it _already_." Rikka said, adding under her breath; "Truly pathetic..."

"What do you _call_ that?" Ateshi asked.

"Shinshinrikaku. High-level Genjutsu." Rikka said as she began walking back toward camp.

"That was _Genjutsu_!?" Ateshi shouted, as Kayuu kicked the lead Grass nin, who jumped over the bushes to try and attack Ateshi in a fit of rage, into a tree.

"Finally broke out of it, huh?" Rikka muttered. "Just remember, vision isn't the only thing that can be affected by Genjutsu."

"Let's go before the other two break out of it as well." Kayuu said, leading the way back to camp.

When the three got back to camp, Rikka immediately crawled into their makeshift shelter to sleep. "We get going at dawn." She said.

"I'll take first watch." Kayuu said as he casually walked up the side of a tree.

"Then I'll see you... whenever..." Ateshi said, falling to the ground to lean against a rock.

The night was surprisingly uneventful. Only a few incidents with the local fauna, never enough to wake the two sleeping. Kayuu woke Ateshi around midnight, and went to sleep. Ateshi kept watch until daybreak, when he nudged Kayuu awake with his foot. "Hoy... what's wrong?" Kayuu muttered as he got up.

"She said we go at dawn. So, we're going." Ateshi said as he gently shook Rikka awake.

"All right, we're going to scout around a bit today. Any objections?" Rikka asked when she sat up.

"A nature hike... how intriguing..." Kayuu muttered.

"I'm beginning to wish I _didn't_ want to stay out here..." Ateshi groaned.

"_Now_ you want to go with my plan? I'm tempted to stay out here just to annoy you." Kayuu rebuked.

"We'll go to the tower at nightfall." Rikka said, sternly.

"Sounds good..." Ateshi said, inching away from the young girl.

"Why nightfall?" Kayuu asked.

"Because _I_ want to see the forest." Rikka said over her shoulder as she began making her way through the brush.

When she said this, Ateshi and Kayuu turned to each other and shrugged, following close behind. As they walked through the forest, Rikka would occasionally stop them to look at moss on a tree, or a patch of plants, to see bugs walking along the ground, or for no apparent reason. Eventually, they found themselves high in a large tree observing a bird nest, when they heard an explosion far in the distance. "Oi... that sounded bad..." Ateshi said.

"Check it out?" Kayuu asked, looking over to Rikka, who shrugged.

"Let's go then..." Ateshi said gleefully, dashing away over the branches towards the noise.

After sighing heavily, Kayuu followed, tailed finally by Rikka. "I don't see why he always carries you. You have decent speed..." Kayuu said, noting that she was keeping an equal pace with him.

When they'd finally caught up with Ateshi, he was standing on a branch overlooking a battle. Sasuke was fighting three Sound ninja, Lee was injured on the sidelines, Sakura was sitting next to an unconscious Naruto, watching the battle near where Lee was, and Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were hiding in the bushes on the other side of the fight, while Tenten and Neji were standing on a branch opposite the newcomer's tree. The Sound kunoichi was already unconscious, if not dead, while the Sound nin who's face was mostly covered in bandages stood to the side, watching as they were. Sasuke had the third enemy by the arms, his foot firmly braced against his back. When they heard a sickening crack as Sasuke nearly ripped his arms from their sockets, they decided they should intervene. Sasuke turned to the last Sound nin, and dashed forward, stopping as his fist was caught by Ateshi, holding Sasuke's fist in both hands, his back braced by Kayuu. "He's pretty strong, eh?" Ateshi asked, just before Sasuke left the ground, smashing his foot into the side of Ateshi's skull.

Ateshi flew into a nearby tree, and slumped onto the ground next to Lee. "I didn't know you were _that_ strong Uchiha... And those markings are new..." Kayuu said, noting the black flecks of skin on Sasuke's face and left arm. "Either way, you far outmatch these people. Stop now, or _I_ will stop you." He added, dropping into a fighting stance akin to Lee's.

"OI!!!" Ateshi yelled, crawling unsteadily to his feet. "This bastard's mine..."

"You are in no state to fight. He's mine." Kayuu said. "You, Uchiha. I did some research the night before this exam. Your Sharingan can duplicate any jutsu it witnesses, and catch motion faster than even other shinobi can see. Am I wrong?"

"Move." Sasuke said bluntly. "I'm not fighting _you_."

"Oh, you are _now_. Now, where was I? You know, I heard so much praise over the '_almighty_' Sharingan, it's hard to believe I could find its fatal flaw in a single night..." Kayuu said, pride flooding his voice as he began running through single-hand seals with the arm behind his back. "Your Sharingan is based solely around motion... But I want to know what happens when you can't _see at all_." Kayuu brought his hand out from behind his back, sheathed in a dark blue aura he slammed his palm into the ground, yelling; "_Meitsume!_" kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Dammit! Now I can't see!" Ateshi yelled.

"That's the point." Kayuu said.

"Neither can you." Sasuke declared.

"Oh, can't I?" Kayuu asked. "_Shinzenbigan_."

"What?" Sasuke asked, before he was struck across the face.

"Shinzenbigan. The True Eye." Kayuu said, striking several more blows past Sasuke's guard in the dust. "Such things as dust and darkness do not hinder my sight."

Sasuke threw a shuriken tied to a wire in a circle, trying to find and catch Kayuu. The shuriken wrapped itself around his arm when he tried to block it, and Sasuke pulled him closer to deal a devastating blow to his jaw. While Kayuu was rising up off the ground, the dust began to finally settle and clear, revealing Kayuu's eyes. In each of his eyes, the iris was now bright yellow. "So this is your Shinzenbigan?" Sasuke asked arrogantly, walking towards Kayuu. "What a pathetic Kekkei Genkai." Empowered by the taint of the dark seal, Sasuke rushed forward with blinding speed, slamming his fist into Kayuu's unprepared jaw. While flying through the air, Kayuu slammed his hand into the ground, flipping back onto his feet and was met with the vision of Sasuke speeding towards him once again. He immediately leapt back, only to have Sasuke nearly smash his fist into Kayuu's face once again. The battle continued in this way for nearly half a minute, one narrow dodge after another.

---

While Kayuu was fighting Sasuke, Rikka walked over to the last remaining Sound ninja. "Hand over your scroll." She said.

"Why?" He asked.

"You lost, no matter how unfairly so. Give me your scroll, so I can give it to them, and you can escape in the commotion." Rikka said, holding out her hand.

"You have a point... Here." He said, handing a brown Earth scroll to the little girl.

"Thank you, now, take you teammates and leave." Rikka said, bluntly as she began walking around the dust cloud.

---

_Shit! I can't keep this up!_ Kayuu thought to himself. _A Genin four years my junior...with speed superior to mine! If this keeps up, he'll kill me!_ As Kayuu dodged a punch that nicked his face on the way by, he cursed to himself. _I'm slowing down._ An unexplainable feeling washed through his eyes at that moment, and the world came into sharper, almost painful focus. A strange aura came into being around Sasuke, one which Kayuu had only one description. _Corrupt._ He couldn't explain it, but it was undeniably evil. Sasuke brought his arm back, but he seemed to telegraph more than just a few seconds before, allowing Kayuu to grab his arm and slam his elbow into Sasuke's face, knocking him away. Kayuu's reprieve was short-lived, however, as Sasuke back-flipped in the air, landing on a tree branch several meters away, and went through a sequence of three seals Kayuu knew all too well. He immediately moved to dodge, though he still noticed the aura around Sasuke moved towards his chest, before a blast of flame erupted from the Uchiha's mouth. Kayuu rushed forward and leapt into the air slamming his fist into Sasuke's gut, following it up with a vicious uppercut, then leapt into the air after him, locking his hands together and swung heavily downwards to send Sasuke plummeting into the ground. Sasuke angrily pulled himself out of the dirt, and was about to attack Kayuu once more, but Sakura's arms around him stopped him from doing so.

"Sasuke-kun...please stop...this isn't you!" She cried.

"Let go of me, Sakura, or I'll kill you." Sasuke threatened.

"No! That man is doing this to you! Please..." Sakura said. The tattoos on Sasuke's face slowly receded, and he slumped over slightly.

A moment later, Naruto shot up, screaming. He then crawled onto his stomach and yelled "Everyone hide! ...That Grass ninja... where is she?"

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, confused.

Chouji began poking the lump on Naruto's head with a stick, while Shikamaru said "You really are one of a kind, that's for sure. And I mean, the kind that gets on my nerves."

"Idiot _pineapple_!" Rikka yelled as she stomped her foot onto Naruto's head.

---

Ateshi sighed heavily, grabbing Lee by the back of his collar, dragging him onto his feet. "Hoy this kid's heavy... wake up boya." Ateshi said, trying to slap him awake without hurting him. After several futile efforts, he jumped up into the tree that held Neji and Tenten, who backed behind her comrade. "Here you go..." He said, handing Lee to Neji. "Hi." Ateshi said over Neji's shoulder, Tenten glaring at him.

"Why are you here?" She asked angrily.

"Came for the fight, stayed for the... why _am_ I still here?" Ateshi asked, Neji and Tenten unsure whether he was joking or truly perplexed.

As the dust began to clear, Ateshi decided to watch the fight and abandoned their conversation. _What the hell is he thinking... He's got a jutsu for this, doesn't he? I've SEEN his kind use it before!_ He thought, followed by "Bah... he must be one of those _inept_ shinobi I've heard about..."

"And what's _that_ supposed to mean?" Tenten yelled.

"It means he didn't even bother learning a technique that could save his life in situations like this." Ateshi snapped sharply.

"What if he _can't_ learn it?" Tenten said, "I've never seen him use a jutsu, have you? Maybe he _can't_!"

"Of course he can. I've seen him use a Kuchiyose." Ateshi stated as he sat down on the branch, aggravation lining his tone. "What makes you think shinobi like that even _exist_?"

Tenten looked shocked, though Ateshi couldn't see. She glanced over at Lee, who was still unconscious in Neji's arms. "I just... I know, okay? You can _be_ a great shinobi without jutsu."

"_Adapt or die_." Ateshi stated, his tone deathly cold. "My uncle used to say that was the first rule of life. He beat it into my brain when he took over my training after mother died... I don't doubt people like that could exist."

"Your mom died?" Tenten asked. Neji looked at her angrily before jumping back off the branch and onto the ground, wanting nothing to do with any sentimental drivel. "What about your father?"

"My..." Ateshi muttered, glancing down. "He was a bastard. A disgrace; weak, pathetic, and a failure as a father... to die before he ever saw his son..."

Tenten was mortified to have brought up such a subject. "I'm sorry! I'm sure he wasn't-" She started, trying to erase her mistake.

Ateshi turned his face to her, tears welling up in his vengeful glare. "_Shut up_." He barked, before hopping up and dashing away.

Tenten hurriedly followed to apologize, but after a minute of chasing, had decided she'd lost him. "Oh no... I didn't mean..." She said, the guilt of driving him to such a state consuming her, when she heard an unfamiliar voice not far away yell out.

"Well, if it isn't the _freak_." She heard, and dashed toward the voice. She saw Ateshi facing three Grass ninja. "We're back to get what's ours..."

"If you want the scroll, I don't have it." Ateshi said. "Now, if you'd kindly _piss off_, I'll be on my way."

"Oh, we don't care about that... We're here for your head..." The leader said.

"We've already _got _our scrolls. We're just here to settle the score..." The second added.

"That fancy forehead protector of yours'll make a good trophy, eh?" The smallest of them muttered, pulling out a kunai.

"Ateshi!" Tenten shouted, and began running up to him, but was stopped.

"_Don't come any closer_!" Ateshi roared back at her. "I don't need _anyone's_ help."

"Heh... you sure?" The smallest of the Grass ninja asked. "You must be pretty _damn_ weak if you had to hide behind a little girl las-"

He was cut off as Ateshi's fist smashed into his sternum, the sickening sound of his ribcage collapsing rung through the trees. "_I AM NOT WEAK_!!!" Ateshi bellowed as the Grass ninja's limp body collided with a tree.

The second Grass nin ran past the leader, drawing a kunai in each hand as he rushed Ateshi screaming "You _bastaaa-_" only to have his throat slashed by his foe's claws. Ateshi caught one of the kunai as they fell, not caring that the spray of blood was washing over him. He quickly flung the dagger into the last Grass ninja's brow ridge, lodging in the bone between his eyes. He only had a moment to stand in shock as Ateshi dashed towards him, embedding the kunai into his foe's skull with his palm.

After a moment of rummaging through the leader's clothing, Ateshi pulled out two scrolls, as they said. Tenten, who had never before seen such a display of utter violence and bloodshed, stood frozen in terror as Ateshi walked up to her. His white clothes were dyed red, his white hair dotted with stray blood. She stood, shaking yet immovable, as this incarnation of death handed her the scrolls. "I don't need them. I don't want them. I don't care if you hate me. I don't even care if this whole damn village wants me dead just as much as mine does. As long as I can stay, and have some chance that I'll never have to do that ever again." He said, his voice devoid of emotion. As he walked away, he added; "I hate the color red."

---

After a moment, Naruto was over his rage, and began running to Sakura yelling "Sakura! Sakura!!! Something happened!" Only to be struck on the back of his head by the Earth scroll given to Rikka by the Sound ninja.

"Stay down! You're too damn troublesome for your own good!" Rikka yelled, walking over to pick up the scroll and drag Naruto over to Sasuke and Sakura. "Damn he's heavy..." She groaned.

"Oi..." Naruto moaned, rubbing the new lump on his head before he started yelling again. "Wait, Sakura! What happened!? Your hair!"

"Oh... that's all..." Sakura sighed, "I just wanted to... change my look. Out in the wilderness like this, it's better to have short hair."

"Hmm... you _did_ cut your hair..." Kayuu muttered, peering over Rikka's shoulder.

As everyone started gathering around the trio, Naruto asked "What's going on? Why are you all here?"

"Big fight. Berserk boya. You didn't miss much." Kayuu said, trying to keep Naruto from overreacting while keeping to the truth as much as possible.

Ino let out a short scream as Ateshi walked back into view. All eyes turned to Ino, and then to the bloody boy she was pointing at. "What the hell happened!?" Kayuu shouted.

"Where is Tenten!?" Neji yelled, dropping Lee to run towards him, his arms drug behind him as he prepared to attack.

"Neji! Stop!" Tenten yelled as she ran out of the woods.

Neji instead ran past Ateshi to talk to Tenten. "What happened? What did he do!?" He asked.

"Neji... He..." Tenten began, pausing to choose her words. "He saved me."

At this, Ateshi looked back in confusion. "What?" Neji asked.

"We were attacked. He... kept me safe. He even gave me the scrolls they had..." She said, holding out the two scrolls Ateshi had handed her earlier.

"We don't need two..." Neji stated.

"I know... that doesn't matter." She said, then decided to quickly change the subject. "How's Lee?"

Ateshi, Tenten, and Neji walked over to the odd boy laying unconscious on the ground. Ateshi was the first there, and thus grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up. "Why aren't you awake yet!?" He yelled as he began swinging the limp Lee around, eventually flinging him into Neji.

As Neji and Lee both groggily rose from the ground, Tenten asked angrily, "Why did you do that!?"

"It woke him up. That's all I care about." Ateshi said, turning to face The small congregation close by. "Rikka! Kayuu! We're going to the tower now! I need a shower." He yelled, then turned to Tenten and added, "Walk with me for a bit."

She nodded in agreement as Kayuu and Rikka started walking away, saying their goodbyes. When they were equally far from Each of their respective teams, Tenten inquired; "So, what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"You said I saved you... why?" Ateshi asked.

After giving it a long moment's thought, she answered: "I... just didn't want anyone to hate you..."

"I thought I said I didn't care about that." Ateshi stated.

"I... care." Tenten said as she stopped walking. After letting Ateshi get several feet ahead of her, She added; "Ateshi... don't lose our bet."

Surprised, he turned back. When he saw the gentle expression on her face, he smiled and nodded.

* * *

OHMAHGAW'! So much character development it's blowin' mah brain!!! 

(This is in order of the characters, and then the items of interest through the chapter. Rikka, then Kayuu, then Ateshi. Along the paragraph, and an explanation of what I think needs explaining in the order it comes up in the chapter. This is how we're going to do this from now on.)

Rikka usually winds up making and amending compromises between Ateshi and Kayuu. It's her job as the girl. The male one-track mind doesn't work that way. And despite being mature for her age, Rikka is still only 12. She's still curious about the world, no matter how much of a hard-ass she is. Thus, the wanting to stay in the forest at least one day. (Shhh... It's a secret, but she really likes natural things like bugs, animals, trees, plants, and all the other things you'd see in a forest. She grew up in a _frozen wasteland_ after all...)

The _entire_ point of copying Lee's stance was to keep Sasuke from copying Kayuu's jutsu, because his right hand would be hidden behind his back.

Ateshi's mother is one of the only people he ever speaks of formally. (Using 'mother' instead of 'mom') This is because he loved and respected her, she trained him until she died, when her brother took over for her, and raised Ateshi. One thing you have to remember, and I still don't think I've made a big enough point over this, is that Ateshi is, for lack of better terminology, _tanned black_. And, I apologize if this offends anyone, but he is most likely one of (If not _the_) first dark-skinned people/person anyone thus far have ever seen. Japan doesn't have many black people, thus, neither does Naruto. (That I've seen, anyway.) This would mean he _would_ look like a freak to them. His white hair and red eyes don't help this fact either. If you didn't remember, _his fingernails are friggin' claws_. The phrase "I hate the color red" is symbolic, as he doesn't hate the color, he hates spilling blood. Tenten realizes this, thus she looks past the fact that he's still covered in blood. Anything else will be discussed and/or revealed in later chapters.

Shinshinrikaku - Shinshin means 'mind and body' and Rikaku means 'isolation' or 'separation'. Essentially; Mind and Body separation. Puttin' the brain in it's own little world, while freezing the body. Originally designed as a capture technique to be used by hunter-nins, but was abandoned due to the unreliable duration of effect compared to the length of time required to use it. (And no, you don't _need_ to say the name of a jutsu for it to work, provided you're proficient enough with said jutsu.)

Kunoichi - Female shinobi.

Meitsume - Mei meaning dark, Tsume meaning claw or talon, making Meitsume 'Dark Claw'. Mei can also mean 'life' or 'destiny'. The Meitsume is a technique to augment taijutsu, as it can be used with both hands, and reverses a simple fact; the harder something is, the harder it is to break. With the Meitsume, the harder the object (Like stone, wood, or the primary target of this jutsu, bone) the easier it will break under the Meitsume. The reverse is also true, the softer an object, the less damage it will take. (The Meitsume would most likely have no effect on Chouji, for instance.) Blows to the chest or skull are almost instantly fatal. This jutsu has it's flaws as well, as it can easily be manipulated for use against the wielder. (Kayuu could easily snap his own arm if he hits it, thus why this jutsu is almost never put to use)

Shinzenbigan - Literally "The True Eye". I'd just like to make sure everyone knows how different the Shinzenbigan is from the Sharingan and Byakugan. The Sharingan is based around motion, the Byakugan is based around chakra. The Shinzenbigan is based around light, and the ability to modify the way the eyes take in photons. This includes nigh-indistinguishable amounts of light as well as light refracted through tiny particles such as dust or mist. This also explains why he can see in light, as he can diminish the amount of intake as well as increase it.


	11. Third Exam: Turbulent Fate

Tenten saying "Don't lose our bet" Meant she liked him enough to go out with him, but didn't consider him any real romantic interest. Most first dates have only that much or even less emotion behind them. Also, I screwed up. I had Tenten say "I've never seen him use a jutsu!" when Kayuu'd just used the Meitsume. _Obviously_ she didn't see the glowy-ness and thought it was Taijutsu! (roll with it)

I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to have to transcribe a few of the fights... If the stuff you already know gets boring, just skim over it.

Now, this chapter is _very_ long compared to the rest of them. About twice as long as the previous longest chapter. Now, what I want to know is if you prefer the shorter 2-3,000 word chapters we've _been_ doing, or massive 10,000+ word monsters like this.

Now, I know I said that was the last of the edits, but Kayuu's village was changed from Ankokugakure to Kuraigakure, and apparently, I didn't hit 'save changes' when I changed it... heheh... now you know. (It means the EXACT same thing, it just sounds a lot more kickass ... lots easier to remember too)

Okay, people. We're changing the rating of this thing from T to M for blood, gore, language, general naughtiness, and possible lemonage.

* * *

"That was interesting... what 'bet' Ateshi?" Kayuu asked as his teammate passed the tree he was standing behind. 

"How long were you listening?" Ateshi asked angrily.

"Long enough..." Rikka said, walking out from behind another tree. "I want to know what that bet was too."

"It's nothing." Ateshi said "We should go to the tower now."

"It's not 'nothing' and we're not going until you tell us." Kayuu said firmly.

"_Fine_. I... Bet her and her team that if I made Chuunin before they did... she'd go on a date with me." Ateshi said, blushing slightly.

"Awww... you two make such a _cute_ couple!" Rikka said sarcastically, wrapping her arms around him.

"Not you too..." Ateshi groaned. "He's bad enough!"

Rikka and Kayuu began laughing hysterically as they made their way to the tower. When they passed through the doors, Rikka handed both of her teammates one of the scrolls. "Now... let's see..." She said, looking up at the plaque on the far wall. "Probably some sort of riddle... But I think this is when we open the scrolls."

Kayuu and Ateshi walked up on either side of her, and opened the scrolls. "A summoning scroll?" Kayuu asked.

"Looks like it..." Ateshi answered.

Rikka grabbed the scrolls from both of them as the symbols began to smolder, and threw them forward, crossing as they landed. A large puff of smoke appeared and vanished, seemingly without purpose. "That was anti-climactic..." Rikka muttered.

"Did we pass?" Ateshi asked.

Another puff of smoke appeared, and a familiar voice said; "Sorry I'm late... I had some paperwork I needed to finish."

"That's the worst lie yet Kakashi." Ateshi muttered.

"No lie this time... you have no idea how much work there is representing _one_ Genin team. I've got team seven _and_ you three." Kakashi said lazily.

"Ahhh... so you admit that you lied before?" Kayuu asked, his voice bold.

Kakashi sighed heavily before asking; "Aren't you even wondering why I'm here?"

"Not really..." Ateshi said, lacing his fingers behind his head.

"Did you even _read_ what was on the wall?" Kakashi asked, causing Ateshi and Kayuu to glance at each other half-heartedly. After Kakashi sighed again, he continued. "It says that if you do not possess Heaven, you should gain knowledge and be prepared. And if you do not possess Earth, to run through the fields and seek strength. If you possess both, dangerous paths become safe ones."

"And what does _that_ mean?" Ateshi groaned.

"That's why I'm here. The Hokage decided I would be best suited to come here because you three would most likely feel more comfortable around me than one of the Chuunin who would have been selected for the task." Kakashi said. "'Heaven' is referring to a person's mind, while 'Earth' is referring to one's body. Just like you need both scrolls to pass this test, you need to excel in both of those attributes to be made a Chuunin."

"Yeah, yeah... brains _and_ brawn, we already _knew_ you needed both. Chuunin are _team leaders_, right?" Ateshi asked, his voice laced with antagonism.

"That they are." Kakashi said.

"Now, if that's all, can I go take a shower?" Ateshi asked angrily. "If I seem at all impatient, it's because I'm quite angry and covered in dried blood."

"Yes, of course. Just remember that you still have a _long_ way to go before you finish the exam." Kakashi said before disappearing in a flurry of wind.

When the five days were finally up, all of the Genin who passed were assembled in a strange hall with a surrounding balcony and an immense fixture that looked like a pair of arms in a hand seal. "First, congratulations on passing the second exam." Anko said, pausing for a long moment as chatter began running through the Genin before continuing. "We will now have an explanation of the third exam from Hokage-sama. Everyone listen well."

At this, Sandaime stepped forward, cleared his throat, and said; "The third exam will begin. But before the explanation, there's one thing I want to make clear to all of you. It's about the true purpose of this exam. Why we do a joint exam with the allied nations. 'To maintain good relations with allied nations' and 'heighten the level of the shinobi'... Do not let those reasons deceive you. This 'exam', so to speak, is..." He took his pipe out of his mouth to blow smoke as he paused; "The substitute for war between the allied nations."

"What the hell..." Ateshi muttered, silencing himself before the Hokage continued.

"If we go back through history, the allied nations right now were neighboring countries that have fought each other over and over again. To avoid wasting military power, those countries decided to choose a place to fight. That is the beginning of the Chuunin Selection Exam."

"Why do we have to do that?" Naruto yelled. "We're not doing this to select Chuunins?"

"Yes, this Exam _does_ examine those who are worthy of the Chuunin title. But, on the other hand, it's also a place where shinobi fight and carry their countries' dignity. In this Third Exam, feudal lords and famous people from various countries who may be potential clients are invited here as guests. And feudal lords from countries with shinobi villages and ninja leaders will see your battles. If there's a significant difference in power, the strong country will be flooded with jobs. If a country is seen as weak, their jobs will decrease. And at the same time, countries are able to show how their village has grown and possess excellent military power to the adjacent countries. In other words, they can put foreign pressure on them."

"So why do we have to fight with the risk of losing our lives?" Kiba shouted.

"A country's power is the village's power. A village's power is the shinobi's power. And a shinobi's true power is only born in life-or-death battle. This exam is also a place to show off the shinobi power of one's country. Since this is an exam where you fight with your life on the line, it has a meaning, and your predecessors have fought and dreamed of being in the Chuunin Exam because of it."

"But why do you say it is to promote good relations?" Tenten asked.

"I told you at the beginning not to get it confused with that. The custom of wearing out one's life and fighting to maintain balance... That is the good relation in the world of shinobi. This is a life-or-death battle for your dream and village's dignity."

"I don't care." Gaara said. "Tell us the details of this life-or-death exam."

"Then I will now begin the explanation of the Third Exam, but..." Sandaime said, clearing his throat before a Leaf ninja appeared in front of him, kneeling.

"Excuse me, Hokage-sama... I, Gekkou Hayate, the judge, will explain." The man said before rising to his feet.

"Please do." The Hokage said.

"Everyone, it's nice to meet you." As the judge turned around, they saw he looked sickly, occasionally coughing between his words. "Before the Third Exam, there's something I want you to do... Fight some preliminary matches to see who gets to advance to the Third Exam's main battle."

"Preliminary matches? What do you mean?" Shikamaru yelled.

"Sensei, I don't understand what you mean by preliminary matches." Sakura said. "Why can't we just start the Third Exam with the remaining examinees?"

"In this case, it must have been because the First and Second Exams were too easy, I don't know... But there are too many Examinees left." The judge said. "According to Chuunin Exam regulations, we must decrease the number of participants for the Third exam. As previously mentioned by Hokage-sama, there are many guests for the Third Exam, so... we cannot just have a lot of matches. We are limited on time, as well. So, those who aren't feeling well..." He stopped as he started coughing heavily. "Excuse me... If anyone wants to quit after hearing the explanation... please let me know. The preliminary matches will begin immediately."

"Immediately!?" Kiba shouted.

"But we just got through the Second Exam..." Ino whined.

"How troublesome." Shikamaru muttered.

"What? What about my meal?" Chouji asked.

"I forgot to mention this, but you will have one-on-one matches from here on out." The judge said. "So please withdraw if you wish."

At this, Rikka raised her hand. "I quit." To the surprise of everyone nearby. Followed by Kabuto, who said the same.

"You are Konoha's Yakushi Kabuto-kun and... Rikka-san?" He asked. "You may leave then."

"What're you doing?" Kayuu asked.

"Continuing on in one-on-one matches would be too damn troublesome. I don't do one-on-one." She said, catching the ears of several Leaf Genin. As she walked away, Shikamaru was about to raise his hand when Ino nudged his stomach with her elbow.

"Kabuto-san, why are you quitting? Why?" Naruto yelled.

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but my body is completely worn out already. Even before the First Exam, after I had that quarrel with the Sound guys, I couldn't hear anything in my left ear. I can't fight right away, especially if it's a life-or-death battle..." Kabuto said.

After a long pause for conversations between Kabuto and his team and the Jounin, the Judge continued; "May I assume there are no more people who wish to retire?"

An argument broke out between Sakura and Sasuke, but neither Kayuu nor Ateshi paid much attention to it. "Delaying an event like this that way got you whipped back home..." Kayuu muttered.

"Heh.. yeah. What the hell are those Jounin thinking?" Ateshi asked, chuckling.

After another long moment, the judge said "Then, let's begin the preliminary matches. It will be a one-on-one match. In other words, it will be like real combat."

"Wrong." Ateshi said sternly, causing even the Jounin to pause. "Real combat is one against many."

A silence swept the room as everyone held their eyes on Ateshi. "This is true far too often." The judge said, before continuing. "Now that we have 22 people, we will have 11 matches. The winners will be able to advance to the Third Exam. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat. If you do not want to die, please give up immediately. However, if I judge that the match is over... I may stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths. The thing that will hold your destiny..." He said, turning to the back as a panel slid away. "Will be this. This electronic bulletin board will randomly display the names of two fighters for each match. Without further ado, I will now display the names for the first match." Various names flickered on the screen until it ended with 'Akadou Yoroi VS Uchiha Sasuke'. "Those whose names were displayed, step up. The first match's fighters are Akadou Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke." As he said this, the two fighters took up places in the middle of the room. "Are there any objections?"

"No." They said in unison.

"We will now begin the first match. Everyone other than the two fighters, please move up there." After everyone had moved onto the higher platforms, the Judge continued; "Begin."

Yoroi began the match by throwing three shuriken, which Sasuke blocked with his kunai before slipping and falling to the ground. Yoroi then moved to close range, and slammed the ground just after Sasuke rolled away. Sasuke then struck his foe's leg with his feet, and caught him in an arm-hold. For some reason, Sasuke let go a short while later, and Yoroi smashed his arm into the boy's stomach before jumping away. He then dashed forward, grabbing onto Sasuke's forehead.

"This isn't right..." Kayuu said. _"Shinzenbigan."_

"What is it?" Ateshi asked.

"I...think he's draining Sasuke's chakra." Kayuu replied as Yoroi forced Sasuke to the ground.

After a long pause when Sasuke went limp, he yelled "Get off!" and pushed Yoroi away with his foot. After both of them rose, Yoroi charged at his foe once more, Sasuke dodging this strike, as well as several others, before he started staggering away.

"What's wrong? Are you done for already?" Yoroi asked before jumping away from Sasuke's kick. A moment of thick tension rose, broken by a familiar grating voice.

"SASUKE!!!" Naruto yelled. "You call yourself Uchiha Sasuke with _that_? Stop acting like an idiot! Get serious!"

Yoroi took this chance while Sasuke was distracted to launch another attack, saying; "You don't have time to look the other way. This is it!"

Sasuke dodged strike after strike until he vanished for an instant, and reappeared under Yaroi, kicking his chin from below and knocking him into the air. "From here on out, it's all original, though." He said, placing two fingers under his opponents back. "It's the end."

"Kage Buyo?" Yoroi asked in bewilderment as he floated in the air.

After a lengthy stall in midair, Sasuke struck out with several blows, Yoroi only able to block the first kick. When Sasuke slammed his opponent towards the ground, he yelled "I'm not done!" and smashed his foot into Yoroi's stomach as he struck the floor. "_Shishi Rendan_!"

The two opponents fell away from each other and lay motionless for several moments "It was that unnatural chakra again..." Kayuu said before Sasuke slowly stood.

"I will stop this match now." The judge said. "The first match winner is Uchiha Sasuke. This means he passes the preliminary round."

"Yes!" Naruto shouted.

As Sasuke was falling backward, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke, bracing the boy with his knee. "You did okay." He said.

"Sasuke! You won in such an idiotic way! You're all worn out! Idiot!" Naruto yelled.

"HOY! Let's get on to the next match!" Ateshi yelled in kind. "Start up that whatchimagig!!! I wanna' fight too!!!"

Kayuu slapped his hand to his face thinking _they're two of a kind, aren't they?_ while he waited for the next match as well.

After a while, the medic-nin came out, saying "Uchiha Sasuke, we medics will give you the best treatment we can."

"This isn't your field." Kakashi said. "I'll take him."

"_Booooriiing_!!!" Ateshi groaned, spinning around and slamming his fist into the wall. When he pulled his fist back and saw it had no effect, he punched the wall three more times, started pouting and muttered; "Damn concrete doesn't break like it used to..."

"If you acted half your age you might train enough to break it." Kayuu snapped, bopping Ateshi on the back of the head.

A short while later, the judge came forward and said "Now, we will begin the next match."

As the names flickered back onto the board, and eventually stopped on two, Ateshi yelled; "YESSS!!!!" Flipping over the railing, landing in the enter of the small arena.

"Kensukai Ateshi and Akamichi Chouji." The judge said.

"Come on! We don't got all day!" Ateshi yelled. Kayuu took this opportunity to jump across to the other balcony.

"Hey guys." Kayuu said, having dropped in the middle of Team Gai. "You wanted to know more about single-hand seals, right? I have a feeling I'll have to Narrate a bit of this fight..." Confused, the five of them waited until Ino finally convinced Chouji to fight.

"Are there any objections?" The judge asked.

"No..." They both said.

"Begin."

Ateshi quickly ran through a series of single-hand seals with both hands. "_Hitsume_!" He yelled, as his fingertips were encased in spiraling white chakra. "Your move." He added, dropping into a defensive stance.

"Spoon claw?" Naruto asked, only to be struck over the head by Sakura.

While Chouji went over his options in his head, Kayuu took this opportunity to speak. "The Hitsume. Awaigakure's prized 'all-purpose' jutsu."

"How would you know about it?" Gai asked. "Aren't you from two different..."

"Two _warring_ villages. Trust me..." Kayuu said, rubbing the back of his neck, almost shuddering. "I know a _lot_ about that jutsu."

"Why is it called an 'all-purpose' jutsu?" Lee asked.

"Because it lives up to all it's names. 'Hi' can mean light, ice, or fire. It glows white and rends flesh, it can start fires or cauterize wounds, and if you've ever been hit by it, you'd swear your wound was frozen over." Kayuu said, sighing before he added; "And if you know the human body well enough, it's also a horrifically efficient method of torture."

Chouji finally decided that he had to make the first move, as Ateshi hadn't altered his stance in the slightest. "Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji shouted, his body inflating like a balloon. "Nikudan Sensha!" He yelled, pulling his limbs and head into his body as he began to roll toward Ateshi.

"A frontal assault? Idiot..." Ateshi said, jumping as Chouji passed by, slamming his Hitsume into the spinning ball. Blood flew away from where they made contact, But it was Ateshi who took the damage. As he landed he yelled, looking down at his shattered nails; "DAMN that hurts!!!" After Chouji made another pass, Ateshi jumped to the side, rolling away. "Dammit! I don't have a jutsu that can _beat_ this kid without _killing_ him!" He shouted, and then looked down at his bloody fingertips and smirking.

As Chouji stopped rolling to regain his bearings, Ateshi found Hayate. The judge asked; "Yes?"

"Well.. I was just wondering... you said there weren't any rules, right?" Ateshi asked, his grin growing wider by the second.

"I did..." Hayate answered.

Ateshi chuckled as he jumped back to the center of the room as Chouji began rolling toward him again. As Chouji got close, Ateshi ran through a familiar set of seals, yelling "_Kuchiyose no Jutsu_!" Just in time to give the massive red fox time to brace his shoulder against the rolling ball. All of the Leaf shinobi in the room looked shocked as the smoke cleared. "Kyo! Toss him!"

Kyo wedged his shoulder under Chouji as his spinning began to slow, and flung him into the air, transforming into a human form in a cloud of smoke. Chouji started shrinking back to his normal size as Ateshi and Kyo jumped up on either side of him, Ateshi slamming his foot into his foe's stomach as Kyo struck his back in the same fashion.

"He can _summon_?" Neji and Tenten asked in surprise.

"He's not the only one, you know. He summons foxes, I summon wolves." Kayuu said, wincing as he heard a grating cry.

"_THAT HAD TO BE CHEATING_!" Ino screamed.

"He said no rules!" Ateshi yelled back.

"You got help!" Ino shouted.

"I used a _jutsu_!" Ateshi said after jumping up onto the balcony to stare her down.

"It is allowed." Hayate said as he walked up.

"I'm confused..." Kyo whined. "What's going on?"

"It's an exam. I have to fight these guys to pass a test." Ateshi shouted back.

"Ohhhh... Can I stay and watch?" Kyo asked as Ateshi jumped back down. "Whoa... you should get those looked at..."

Ateshi looked at his fingers. "Yeah, I guess... doesn't really hurt that much anymore though..."

"Well... before the next fight starts." Kyo said.

Ateshi sighed. "Yeah, all right. We'll go and get my hands fixed. Kayuu! You comin'?"

"Nah." Kayuu said, before nudging Tenten, who was leaning up against the bar next to him.

"What?" She asked.

After several failed attempts to convey his intent with body language, Kayuu sighed and muttered. "You. Go. Medic. _Boya_. Eh?"

Tenten blushed slightly as she glanced past him to her teammates; Neji was snickering, and Lee was smiling idiotically while giving her a thumbs-up. Kayuu thought he saw something sparkle, but he wasn't sure. Gai looked as if he were somewhere between bawling and screaming, mixed with his near-constant radiance of pride. Kayuu assumed he was always this unreadably eccentric. Tenten sighed, her cheeks red. "Thanks..." She muttered.

"You're welcome." Kayuu said, smiling broadly.

As Ateshi and Kyo followed the medic-nin down the hallway, Tenten caught up to them. "Ateshi! Wait up..." She said.

"Oooh... who's the cutie?" Kyo asked, leaning over and whispering; "You been holdin' out on me?"

"You're what... five times her age?" Ateshi asked.

"Maaaybeee..." Kyo said playfully.

"Was he...?" Tenten started.

"Yes. He was. Feel free to hit him." Ateshi said as he kept walking.

Tenten merely glared at Kyo and kept walking. "OOOOH! Now I get it!" Kyo said, running after them with an idiotic smile on his face.

"Get what?" Ateshi asked as he sat down on one of the medical beds. "Don't you have some fights to go watch?"

"It's not every day you get to meet your best friend's gi-" Kyo started, only to be sharply interrupted.

"Finish that sentence and I'll rip your tail off!" Ateshi snapped.

"You wouldn't..." Kyo muttered.

"We both know you don't really _need_ it." Ateshi said.

"Wait... didn't he have... five tails?" Tenten asked.

"Oh please... I'm a fox. _Master of illusions_? The other four are just hair." Kyo said, leaning his arm over Tenten's shoulders.

"Kyo. Fights. _Now_." Ateshi growled.

"All _right_. No need to get all _overprotective_." Kyo said, backing away from Tenten and turning towards the door. "She's probably not my type anyway..."

"_Female_ is your type." Ateshi said sarcastically.

"_Damn_ right." Kyo said as he left, waving over his shoulder.

"He's _really_ your best friend?" Tenten asked as the medic nins took hold of Ateshi's hands, and began examining them.

"More like my _only_ friend, but yeah... _YAO_!" He griped as they started picking shards of fingernail out of his fingertips.

"It looks like they'll heal eventually." One of the medics said, grabbing several small rolls of bandages.

"Here..." Tenten said, taking one of the rolls. "I'll take care of it. You guys go worry about everyone else."

"You're a medic?" Ateshi asked.

"No, but I can handle bandages..." She replied.

"You know, you don't have to do that..." Ateshi said, holding out his hand as the blood on his fingers hardened, locking away the wound. "Blood control, remember? I just wanted them to get all the bits out before I did."

"Oh... um... sorry." She said.

"No, I didn't mean... wait... what?" He mumbled.

"You've never dealt with girls before, have you?" She asked.

"Not... really... no."

"I'm the first girl you've ever really _talked_ to, aren't I?"

"No! There was... my cousin. She's about your age." Ateshi said, flustered.

"You sure you're not just making her up?"

---

Kyo was watching the match between Shino and Zaku when he noticed Kayuu's intense gaze. "Oi. The hell's with your eyes?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" Kayuu asked, somewhat annoyed.

"They're all...pointy. And orange." Kyo said, as if it was obvious. This caught Kayuu's attention.

"Did you say orange?" Kayuu asked, his full attention on the loud fox summon.

"Yeah, I did. And they've got these...lines. Like the four major points on a compass." Kyo said, becoming more serious. Kayuu untied his hitai-ite, breathed on it, and cleaned the metal surface. He then used it as a mirror to examine his eyes.

"Hey. You're right." Kayuu said blandly.

"Of _course_ I'm right." Kyo said arrogantly. Kyo's attention was suddenly diverted by the agonized yell of Zaku as the force of his attack was stopped up in his own arms, blowing them clean off. There was a small popping noise as Kyo ran off, yelling "Oi!!! I gotta go tell Ateshi about this!"

"Yes! I'm sure!" Ateshi said in the infirmary as Kyo burst in.

"Hoy! Some guy's ARMS just exploded!!!" Kyo yelled.

"Sounds... like it's gonna get messy in here." Ateshi muttered after the initial shock of it had passed. "You want to head somewhere else?"

"Uh... sure... but what about my match?" Tenten asked.

"Kyo. We'll probably be up a floor or two. Find us when Tenten's match comes up. Tell Kayuu too." Ateshi said. Kyo sighed, nodded, and left. "Problem solved."

"Okay then..." She said. After thoroughly searching the tower, they eventually found a balcony overlooking the forest. After sitting down on the edge, there was a long moment of silence, until barely audible words came from beside her.

"Your world really is beautiful..."

"What do you mean, 'my world'?" Tenten asked.

"Well, to be honest, until about a week ago, I've never even _seen_ trees before... let alone a forest like this..." Ateshi said. "I've read reports... but I never gave it much thought..."

"What's it like... where you grew up?"

"It's too bright." Ateshi said, chuckling. "Everything's white... everything shines... The buildings, the roads, it doesn't matter. I suppose you'd probably thing it's pretty... but after you've lived there over a decade, it starts losing it's appeal... It's up on top of a mountain. The air's thin and it's really cold..."

"You're right... it _does_ sound pretty..."

"You probably couldn't see it though... too bright. It's pretty dark here actually..."

Another short silence followed, before Tenten asked "You could have beaten Lee, couldn't you? With that technique?"

"Yeah, maybe. I could always teach it to him if you want..."

"No... you can't... Remember what I said about... shinobi who can't use ninjutsu?" Tenten asked, almost having to force the words out. "I was... talking about Lee..."

"Ah... that makes sense then..." Ateshi said, lowering his gaze as well as his tone. "I'm sorry... that I said that."

"It's okay, you didn't know." Tenten said before quickly changing the subject. "Your name, Kensukai, it's a bit weird, huh?"

"I wouldn't know. It's my clan name. Well, one of them..."

"One of them?" Tenten asked, a bit confused.

"A long time ago, there were two clans; the Kensukai clan, an old samurai clan, and the Himeiko clan, the people with my Kekkei Genkai." Ateshi stated.

"So you're a samurai?"

"No, there's always been disputes about whether the Kensukai were really samurai either. They, unlike all the other samurai, could mold and use chakra. I'm a shinobi though." Ateshi said, almost chuckling. "I'm really not a hand-to-hand fighter as much as I'm a close-combat fighter. Here, let me show you something..." He said, standing as he took a kunai from the holster on his leg, and tossed it into the air while drawing one of his short swords. As the kunai fell, Ateshi yelled; "_Kenpou: Tenkuuha_!" and swung his sword. There was a flash as the blade moved, and the two halves of the kunai struck the balcony.

"Whoa..." Tenten muttered. "That's... ninpou?"

"Kenpou; Sword Art." Ateshi said. "The Kensukai clan's secret art. If there was still a real _clan_, I'd've been severely punished for showing you _that _much."

"What do you mean?"

"The two clans decided to merge, but there were enough people on either side that opposed it that pretty soon there was an all out three-way-feud between the Kensukai, Himeiko, and the part of both clans that wanted to merge the two. In the end, both clans were split apart, and there really wasn't anything to hold them together anymore, so everyone went their separate ways." Ateshi said, starting to ramble on.

"So you mean that you've got a clan, but it's just... spread out?" Tenten asked.

"...Yeah..." Ateshi muttered. "That and half of them would probably kill me on sight..."

"Why?" Tenten asked.

"I'm a part of the joint clan. Any member that opposed the merger would be opposed to my very existence." Ateshi said, flopping back onto the floor of the balcony. "I've got the secrets of the Kensukai, and the blood of the Himeiko. Neither of them would like me for that..."

Tenten kneeled beside him, leaned closer and said; "Well, I've never heard of either of those clans... they're not here in Konoha, so you don't have to worry about that. Besides, even if they _did_ show up, you've got me and everyone else to help you..." Having just realized what she'd said, Tenten blushed. "I mean..."

"I think I get what you mean..." Ateshi said, leaning up as he placed his hands on her shoulders, and to her surprise, pulled her into an awkward embrace. "Thank you."

When the initial shock wore off, she wrapped her arms about his waist and said "You're welcome..."

After shifting into a more comfortable position, the two stayed that way for a long while, before someone at the balcony entrance cleared their throat and said; "It's time for your match, Tenten."

"_Gai-sensei_!?" Tenten said, scrambling to her feet, knocking Ateshi over in the process. "I... er... um... You see..."

"No need to worry about what I saw. It was bound to happen eventually, and I'm glad you decided on a strong and sensible man who would make-" Gai said, but was immediately interrupted.

"He's _not_ my boyfriend!!!" Tenten yelled.

"_Yet_!" Ateshi added, shooting his arm up into the air as if to make a point while he remained stiffly planted with his back to the ground.

Gai chuckled in the absurdly hearty way that he does, and grabbed Ateshi's wrist to pull him to his feet. "Let's go. We don't want to be late." Gai said, grabbing hold of both of them as a flurry of wind and leaves surrounded them.

As they arrived in the middle of the arena, Temari said; "I was wondering if you were going to show up or not."

"Let's go, Ateshi." Gai said as he walked away.

"You actually remember my name?" Ateshi asked.

"And you must be Ateshi-kun." The Jounin from the Sound village said as Gai and Ateshi returned to the rest of Gai's team. "It's an honor to finally meet you." He said, his arm outstretched, waiting for Ateshi to shake his hand.

"I have a match to watch." Ateshi said, turning back to the arena. The Sound Jounin walked away slowly, chuckling slightly with a grin forming on his face as he left.

"Do your best Tenten!" Lee yelled, as Neji muttered something about the Sand shinobi.

"Oi," Kayuu said, getting Ateshi's attention. "I was talkin' to that fox of yours...found out my Shinzenbigan evolved." He finished lazily.

"Hmm." Ateshi replied, just as lazily, and turned his attention back to the ring.

"Begin." Hayate said.

As Tenten jumped back to gain distance, Lee yelled; "Fight! Tenten!"

"Believe in your power, Tenten!" Gai yelled alongside his pupil.

"Tenten! We are with you!" Lee added. "Fight with everything you have!"

"That's it! Show your spirit!" Gai yelled.

"You two... shut up." Ateshi said sternly. "Please?"

"What's wrong?" Hayate asked. "Please begin."

"Hmph. You want to observe what I do?" Temari asked. "This is just a warning, but if I start attacking, you're going to be finished in a second." She added, taking a step forward as Tenten stepped back. "You're not skilled enough to see how I attack. Stop trying to look good." She pointed her thumb to her chest. "I don't mind, come on."

"You sure seem confident." Tenten said. "Then I'll go without hesitation." She added, jumping up into the air and throwing several shuriken, which fell harmlessly to the floor. "I missed? That can't be!" She said as she landed.

"What's wrong? Was that attack just to test me? Or did you shrink up with fear and can no longer aim?" Temari said, sighing. "I thought that I would have more fun, but it seems that I can't expect much from you."

"That cannot be! Tenten's attack missed?" Lee asked, almost on the verge of shouting.

"That's impossible." Gai said. "Tenten is able to hit a mark a hundred times in a hundred tries."

"There's no way she can miss." Neji said.

"Yes. She didn't miss. She was forced to miss." Gai stated.

_Hmmm. Chakra-made wind,_ Kayuu thought as he watched with his evolved Shinzenbigan. _Interesting method of battle._

_She really is more amazing than I thought..._ Went through Ateshi's mind as Tenten began running around her opponent.

"How about this!" Tenten yelled as she jumped above Temari, and pulled out a scroll. In a feat of what looked to be aerial acrobatics, Tenten flung the scroll in a spiral around herself. As she began spinning faster, various weapons began raining down on Temari, each falling to the ground with minimal effect. "What? My weapons..." She said as she landed.

"This is the first star." Temari said, making note of the giant purple dot on her partially opened fan. "There's two more. When you see three stars, you're going to lose."

"Tenten! Do not let the enemy make you go at her pace!" Lee yelled. "Stay calm! Stay calm!" After a short pause, Tenten smirked and pulled out two scrolls.

"She's going to use 'it' already?" Gai muttered.

"What's she planning to do with those two scrolls?" Naruto asked, as Tenten placed the scrolls on the ground.

"No matter what you try, it's useless." Temari said arrogantly.

Tenten strung through five hand seals, and crossed her arms, shouting; "_Soushouryuu_!" A cloud of smoke exploded onto the field, and to pillars of smoke shaped like dragons shot upward and coiled around each other until the smoke cleared, revealing two scrolls hidden within the smoke dragons. Tenten then jumped up between the spiraling scrolls, taking weapons one after another from the scrolls, and throwing them at Temari.

"Even if you increase the numbers, it's still the same." Temari said, unfolding her fan slightly further, swinging it to blow Tenten's weapons back. "Second star!"

"I'm not done!" Tenten said as she landed, jumping back into the air, pulling her weapons up with wires before sending them all hurtling back towards Temari, only to be blown down along with her weapons.

"Third star." Temari said, holding her fan out behind her before vanishing as she twirled it closed in front of her.

"Where is she?" Tenten asked as she looked around the field.

"Here." Temari said as she floated down from above on her fan. When she landed, she swung her fan, yelling; "_Ninpou: Kamaitachi_!" Tenten was instantly caught in the insuing whirlwind, rising off the ground as the wind slashed various gashes into her skin and clothing.

"Tenten!" Lee yelled.

"_Bitch_!!!" Ateshi yelled as he saw how Tenten was caught in the whirlwind with no means of escape.

"That wind has chakra embedded in it." Neji said. "Tenten fought well, but she cannot escape that tornado."

When Tenten eventually fell from the grasp of the whirlwind, Temari held out her fan to catch her as the young kunoichi's back nearly snapped under the strain of landing thusly. _I'll kill her..._ Ateshi thought as he saw a spatter of blood fly from Tenten's mouth.

"How cruel..." Naruto muttered.

"Tenten..." Lee said.

"That was boring. Very boring." Temari said, almost smugly.

"She neutralized all of Tenten's weapon attacks." Gai stated solemnly.

"This cannot be..." Lee muttered in disbelief.

"Who is she?" Naruto asked.

"Fifth match winner: Temari." Hayate said as he stepped closer to the combatants.

As Temari grinned maliciously, Lee shouted; "Oh no!" and leapt from the balcony. To his utter surprise, Ateshi appeared several meters in front of him before he landed, and caught Tenten himself.

"Nice catch." Temari said smugly.

"The match is _over_." Ateshi stated in a frighteningly stern tone.

"Why would you do that!?" Lee shouted.

Temari slammed the base of her fan into the ground, saying; "Shut up. Take that piece of trash and leave."

At this, Lee tensed his body in anger, and Neji shouted down to him; "Stop, Lee!"

Before Lee could even start his charge however, a strong and eerie chakra filled the arena, and Lee stopped in it's presence. Ateshi and Tenten's hair and clothing began fluttering despite the lack of wind, and Kayuu quickly shouted down; "Ateshi! If you use that technique now, there is no telling what would happen to the girl in your arms, the girl you intend to kill, the other competitors and especially our standing with Konohagakure." He said as Ateshi glared up at him from below. "Do not assume for an _instant_ that I will hesitate to kill you if need be."

Kayuu's words didn't sway him in the slightest notion. Ateshi continued to let his rage fuel this dangerous mist. His anger was shattered however, when the girl in his arms began coughing up more blood under the weight of his chakra. "Tenten!" Ateshi yelled as the veil disappeared along with his focus on anything but the thought of getting Tenten to the medic-nin. "_Move_!" Ateshi bellowed as he dashed down the hallway, nearly plowing down several Leaf Genin in his path.

"What a frightening child..." Gai muttered.

"You have _nooo_ idea..." Kyo said as he casually leaned against a wall behind them.

"What do you mean?" Neji snapped.

"Erm... uhh... whoops..." Kyo muttered as he turned and walked away, whistling suspiciously.

As Ateshi knocked over a medic nin leaving the makeshift infirmary, he yelled; "Help her, please!"

At Ateshi's tone, most of the medics ran towards them, one taking Tenten from his arms. After a few moments, they dispersed, one of them even chuckling. One of them walked over to Ateshi and said; "You're overreacting, kid. Most of her wounds are superficial, along with some minor internal damage. She's going to be _fine_."

"It's like you've never seen anyone with a few _scrapes_ before..." The medic who had laughed earlier said. "They're just superficial. won't even _scar_."

As Ateshi watched the medics bandage Tenten's wounds, Gai walked up behind him, invisible compared to Ateshi's focus on Tenten. "You do care quite a lot for her, don't you?" Gai asked. "Why is that?"

Ateshi turned back, startled. "I... I don't know. She was just... the first girl to ever really... care." He said, unable to mold his words properly as he turned back to Tenten, who the medics just finished bandaging.

"We don't need to be here. You should go back and watch the matches." Gai said.

"No..." Ateshi muttered, pulling up a chair and sitting down next to Tenten, taking her hand. "My match is over, right? I'll just... stay here a while."

Gai sighed. "All right, I'll allow it... as long as you let her rest." He said before he turned and left.

---

Kyo walked along the balcony, pacing as he tried to find something that peaked his interest. The current fight, between Shikamaru and the sound kunoichi, seemed like nothing more than common brawling to his untrained eyes. Eventually, he walked up to a Leaf Genin team and their Jounin. A strange boy with red facial markings, the boy who used bugs to win his match, and an odd, blue-haired girl who he noticed kept glancing over at a blond-haired loudmouth. After sneaking up behind her, he silently asked; "What's with you and blondie?" Hinata squeaked in surprise, and blushed heavily. "Ohhhh... heh. Another love-struck brat." He added, ruffling Hinata's hair playfully as her face turned deep red.

"And who the hell are you?" Kiba asked.

"Name's Kyo." He said, holding out his hand in friendship, only to have Akamaru latch onto his fingers. "...I wish I could say I was surprised by this... what is it with me and dogs?"

After he managed to coax Kyo's hand out of his dog's mouth, Kiba asked; "So, what are you doing over _here_? Shouldn't you be with that bastard that summoned you?"

"Heh... quite a mouth on this one... eh?" Kyo asked, turning to their Jounin, only to have his gaze met by a woman with red eyes. His stature then became just as defensive as his tone. "Who are you? What are you doing here? What is your _full_ name?"

"Why do you want to know?" She asked.

"Just _answer the question_." Kyo growled.

"Yuhi Kurenai, leader of Team 8, resident of Konohagakure. Satisfied?" She snapped.

"Yuhi... All right. But we're going to need to have a talk with a friend of mine after this is over." Kyo said, leaning over the bar of the balcony between Hinata and Kiba.

---

When Tenten finally woke up, Ateshi was nearly asleep at her side. "What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I... brought you to the medics." Ateshi said, startled back into consciousness.

"Why are you _still_ here?" She added.

Ateshi blushed slightly. "Well, I... uhm... I guess I just... didn't want to... leave you..." He said, stringing together whatever came to mind.

"And you've been holding my hand the entire time?" She asked, chuckling as he jumped back a few feet.

"I... er... no?" Ateshi stumbled, moving a bit closer.

Tenten held her hand out towards him. "It's okay, go ahead." She said, smiling lazily.

Ateshi slowly moved back into his seat, lacing his fingers with hers. "I'm sorry I let this happen..." He said solemnly.

"It's not your fault. I'm fine." She said, trying to lighten the mood. Chuckling, she added; "We would've gotten into trouble anyway if you messed with the match."

"Yeah... I suppose..." Ateshi mumbled.

"Why don't you go watch the rest of the matches?" Tenten asked. "It must be so gloomy and boring in here..."

"No, I'm fine here..." He answered.

"Go. You need cheering up. Make some friends..." Tenten said, taking her hand back. "I'll be right here after the fights are over. Don't worry..."

Ateshi sighed and nodded, walking out into the corridor. As he walked back into the arena, he saw the fights had progressed and now Naruto was fighting Kiba and Akamaru. He glanced around, and saw that several people were missing, but that was unimportant. Kayuu was glaring intently at the battle below, while Kyo was cheering for Naruto, occasionally nudging Hinata to do the same. He walked silently over beside Kayuu, and asked; "What's going on?"

Ateshi barely heard Kayuu's answer between the fight below and Kyo and Hinata's cheering, Kyo especially, as Hinata seemed oddly silent while she shouted alongside him. "Nothing much. A few fights. That's all."

"Anyone worth mentioning?" Ateshi asked.

"Naruto's doing better than I thought he would, and his opponent seems quite skilled compared to the other Genin I've seen today." Kayuu said.

Ateshi looked over to the other side of the arena. On the other balcony, Temari was smirking at him. Ateshi let a drop of blood seep from his finger, and flicked it toward her. The tiny dart scraped her cheek while essentially piercing her left ear. When she brought her hand up to examine the wound, she worded soundlessly; _Nice shot_.

Ateshi smirked and replied '_I missed_' to her dismay.

Just after this, the arena rung with the cry of "U-ZU-MA-KI ... NARUTO RENDAN!"

"Naruto won... Interesting..." Kayuu said halfheartedly.

Ateshi slumped down against the wall. He simply lost interest in his surroundings. He watched half-asleep as Naruto and Hinata exchanged words, and she gave him a small bottle after a bit of coaxing from Kyo, who proceeded to wrap his arms around both their shoulders and let out a hearty laugh. Then everyone went about their business. Ateshi barely noticed the start of the next match; Hinata against Neji. It was only until around halfway through the fight that he began paying any attention to the combatants. The way Kayuu looked over the battle had changed, along with an increase in his killing intent, peaked Ateshi's interest. "What's goin' on?" He asked.

"This fight is becoming...interesting." Kayuu replied.

"How the hell is it interesting?" Ateshi asked, confused. "Just looks like a couple of people slapping at each other to me..."

"Yes, but from what I can discern, their taijutsu style injects chakra in a small but concentrated blast into the body of the opponent." Kayuu said distractedly.

"Uh. Interesting...?" Ateshi said, causing Kayuu to sigh in irritated exasperation.

"It means with the slightest touch, you can damage your opponent's internal organs. Like the brain. Or the _heart_." Kayuu said, annoyed.

"Whoa. That _is_ interesting..." Ateshi said, paying attention to the fight for the first time.

"Yes, but...those two...they seem to be related, as they have the same kind of eyes. The boy, however, is giving off intense killing intent, and the girl isn't emitting any. I can't understand it. Family shouldn't harbor such violent feelings for each other." Kayuu said, half to Ateshi and half to himself. "It's like she doesn't even want to hurt him..." Kayuu and Ateshi watched as Neji hit Hinata over and over again, with Hinata refusing to give up. Finally, they struck decisive blows to each other's chests, and for a moment all was quiet, the tension thick in the air. After what seemed like an eternity, Hinata coughed up blood, and to everyone's shock, Neji was unaffected. To Kayuu, the scene suddenly flashed to a dark memory...

_Two boys, battling under the watchful eye of a man and a woman; both exude powerful auras of confidence and strength. Not to be trifled with._ Kayuu blinked a few times, and the scene reverted back.

"What!? Hinata's attack hit him too!" Naruto yelled. Hinata was unfazed by this turn of events and attempted to slap Neji's hand away and deal a blow to his face, but it was quickly caught and struck. He then pulled her sleeve up, revealing a great number of small bruises on her arm, to her great shock. Kayuu noticed this, and it dawned on him why the chakra vapor had been lessening, even vanishing altogether, around Hinata. Neji had struck the tenketsu points on her arms, preventing her from using the Jyuuken. Kayuu vaguely heard Kakashi explaining what had just happened in greater detail, but he paid little attention. Ateshi however, was focused entirely on the two combatants. Neji then struck Hinata, causing her to fly back. Kayuu's eyes widened as the room once again flashed back to the other scene.

_The two boys matched each other, blow for blow, a small girl gasping whenever a particularly vicious blow was thrown._ Shaking his head a bit, Kayuu turned his attention back to the two Hyuuga.

Neji strode forward and told her to quit, but Hinata refused, and painfully got back to her feet. Kayuu, with a small smile, noticed with his enhanced vision that Hinata looked at Naruto before looking back to Neji and re-activating her Byakugan. She was about to continue the fight when she suddenly clutched her chest and coughed up a large amount of blood, a wave of shock rolling over the spectators. Naruto chose this time to yell his encouragement. "HINATA! DO YOUR BEST!" Kayuu gasped slightly as the scene once again shifted.

_The two boys had drawn their kunai, both savagely lunging at each other; the level of brutality being shown was undermined by the look of fear in the eyes of both boys._ Kayuu shook his head violently to rid himself of the unwelcome images.

Neji noticed this and reinforced his stance, just as Hinata resumed her charge. They continued battling for a small amount of time, until Hinata overextended and Neji struck a painful blow to her jaw. Kayuu had to actively restrain himself from jumping into the ring to stop what was happening. Ateshi noticed this, but did not say anything. Hinata once again refused to give up, and charged Neji again, until he delivered another explosive blow to her chest. She spat up more blood, and then collapsed. "It's over." Neji said, and began to walk away. Hayate walked over and took in the scene. Kayuu's eyes widened in fear as the scene reverted yet again; his fists tightened on the guard rail.

_One of the boys lunged with his kunai, his eyes filling with terror as it plunged straight into the chest of the other, absolutely sure he'd have dodged. The small girl's shout rang through the air. "ANIKI!" The boy dropped to the ground, blood pooling around him. The killer dropped to his knees, tears welling up in his eyes. "No! Please, don't leave me, Nii-chan!" _Kayuu forcefully shut his eyes and grabbed his head. "It's in the past...it's in the past..." He repeated this mantra for several minutes, as if it was his lifeline.

"I am going to assume she can't fight anymore-" He started, but was cut off by a yell from Naruto.

"Don't stop the match!" He said staring intently at the arena. Sakura began to berate him for yelling, but was surprised along with everybody else as Hinata began to stand back up. Kayuu couldn't help but grin at her determination. Neji berated her for attempting to change when it was impossible, but Hinata responded with how she could see that he was suffering far more than her inside the fates of the Main and Branch families. At this, Neji lost control and dashed at her, accompanied by a powerful spike in his killing intent. This caught Kayuu's attention, as he looked back up and placed his trembling hands back on the guard rail, slowly managing to calm himself.

"Neji-kun! The match has ended!" Hayate yelled, and dashed forward to stop Neji from killing Hinata, and was joined by Kakashi, Gai, and Kurenai. Naruto, Sakura, and Lee all jumped down to try to help, when Neji spoke to Naruto.

"Hey. You dropout there. Let me warn you about two things. If you're a ninja, stop that unsightly cheering for a stranger. And one more thing. A dropout is a dropout. They cannot change." Neji said arrogantly.

"Do you want to try?" Naruto said, but Neji only smirked in response, causing Naruto to dash at Neji. Unbeknownst to the majority of the crowd, as they were paying attention to Naruto, Kyo also made a dash for Neji but was stopped as Kayuu jumped down to the arena after him and grabbed him from behind. This did not last long as Kyo grabbed Kayuu's wrist and flung him against a wall.

"Ateshi! Control your accursed summon!" Kayuu yelled. At this, Ateshi appeared seemingly out of nowhere and completed a set of seals, causing a blade of pure white chakra to extend from his hand. He pointed this blade at Kyo and they simply glared at each other for roughly half a minute, when the blade wavered and vanished, followed by Ateshi wobbling and almost falling. He would have hit the ground, had Kyo not caught him. After a few seconds of recuperating in Kyo's hold, he spoke.

"Dammit, Kyo, you made me show off my trump card..." Ateshi said tiredly.

"Why didn't you just let me pummel him?" Kyo asked Ateshi quietly.

"I'll tell you what...if I get to fight him, I'll let you beat him to a pulp. Deal?" Ateshi said, also quietly. This caused Kyo to chuckle slightly.

"Deal. Right now, you need sleep." Kyo said. As he carried Ateshi off to the infirmary, the screen lit up once more after a cough from Hayate.

"Sabaku no Gaara versus Rock Lee. Would the combatants please come to the ring?" The judge asked. Gaara used his Suna Shunshin to appear on the ring, while Lee simply jumped from the spectator area down to the floor.

The battle was fast and brutal. Kayuu, through the use of the Shinzenbigan, noted that the 'chakra vapor' as he had come to call it was almost non-existent around Lee, while Gaara's had an odd tan chakra intermingled with his own. Lee started immediately on a powerful offensive, but Gaara's sand shield nullified several of his attacks. After encouragement from his instructor, Lee took off his weights, and moved faster than most could see. Kayuu was not one of these people, and could watch every single one of Lee's movements while in awe. The battle only escalated from there as Lee opened what Kayuu recognized as some of the Eight Gates, resulting in not only an explosion of power and speed, but his chakra, as Kayuu could testify. The battle finally ended in one final blow by Lee, but it was for naught as Gaara was able to cushion his impact with the gourd of sand on his back. Lee tried desperately to evade the sands that Gaara sent after him, but in his debilitated condition, the tendrils caught his left arm and leg, crushing them. Gaara was about to kill the boy when Gai intervened. Lee was quickly carried off on a stretcher, leaving an injured Gaara and destroyed arena behind.

Hayate's cough brought everyone's attention back to the board. The board had no additional names to cycle through anymore, so it immediately selected the only two people who had yet to be chosen. "Would Haburi Kayuu and Kinuta Dosu please come to the arena?" Hayate asked, coughing afterwards. Both shinobi immediately jumped down on separate sides. Dosu attempted a few taunts, but to no avail as Kayuu merely stared at him. "Haburi Kayuu versus Kinuta Dosu. Hajime!"

Dosu simply chuckled. "It's time to show you my power, I suppose." He stuck his arm forward, and Kayuu could see the chakra vapor condensing around it. _A projectile attack, most likely._ He thought, and was correct as Dosu launched a wave of sound at Kayuu, who saw it as a wave of chakra vapor, and had already jumped to the side to avoid it. The wave impacted the wall with little effect on Kayuu, other than the beginnings of a headache. He had, however, seen it begin to curve before it hit the wall, leading him to the conclusion that Dosu had some sort of manipulation over the path of the attack.

"You won't survive the end of this day." Kayuu said, his voice emotionless. Dosu responded by launching another wave of sound at him, but Kayuu had seen him molding the chakra to do so, and jumped over the attack, while expertly using his left hand to run through the seals for his Meitsume. The dark blue chakra enveloped his hand, and he hit the ground running, shooting straight for Dosu. Dosu's face set itself into a scowl under his bandages, and sprinted towards Kayuu while dumping as much chakra as he could into his arm. He pulled it back and prepared for a punch with which to blast sound waves directly into Kayuu's body, but his eyes widened in surprise when Kayuu threw a palm strike at his arm itself, shattering straight through the metal item on his arm. Kayuu's hand didn't stop there, and struck Dosu's arm itself, shattering the boy's bone. Kayuu grasped Dosu by the throat with his other hand, and allowed their momentum to carry them to the wall opposite where Kayuu had started. Dosu glared at Kayuu's emotionless eyes, and his blood ran cold at what Kayuu said next. "Die." Was all that came out of his mouth when he brought his left hand up, grasped Dosu's head, and snapped his neck in one smooth motion. Kayuu dropped the now lifeless body and jumped up into the spectator area where almost everyone there unconsciously backed away, frightened by his brutal, yet efficient victory.

After Dosu's corpse had been carted away, Hayate spoke. "Now that all of the matches are complete, please come over here and draw a number." All of the Chuunin prospects gathered around Hayate, with the majority keeping a small distance between themselves and Kayuu, and drew their numbers. "Now that you all have your numbers, please read them off in order.

Kayuu was first. "I have one." A short time of silence passed; when Hayate saw that no one was going to speak up, he reached into the box. "Doesn't anyone have two?"

Hayate glanced at the group. "Keep going. We'll figure it out in a moment."

Naruto grinned and shouted out "Three!"

Neji stoically read his next. "Four." Once again, silence reigned and Hayate sighed.

"Keep going."

Gaara spoke next. "Six."

"Seven." Came Shino's monotone voice.

With an arrogant smirk, Kankuro read his own. "Eight."

Temari grinned and waved her paper. "Nine."

Shikamaru sighed and spoke up. "Ten..."

Hayate finished writing down the names, and spoke up once more. "We have two people missing. You," he said, pointing at Kayuu. "Draw for your teammate." Kayuu shrugged and walked up to the box again, and pulled out the slip of paper.

"Ateshi has two." Kayuu said. Hayate wrote this down, as well as something else.

"That means Uchiha Sasuke has number five." Hayate said. By this time, the Hokage himself had come down. He looked at the numbers and began writing on a sheet of paper. After a few moments, he held it up and showed it to the assembled Genin. All of the people who'd drawn odd numbers were paired with the people who'd drawn the next number." Kayuu simply smirked at the fact that he'd get to fight the only person actually worth it, aside from the enigma that was Sabaku no Gaara.

"You all have one month to prepare yourselves for the final exam, through training or gaining information on your opponents. You are all dismissed." Sarutobi said, all with a warm smile on his face. At this, all of the competitors went their separate ways, intent on strengthening themselves as much as possible before the month was out.

---

As this was taking place, an old man walked through the gates of Konoha. He leaned a long staff on his shoulder while prodding the ground ahead of him with it, and clutched at the Daisho tied to his belt. The gatekeepers merely watched in awe, astounded that anyone could find their way to any village, let alone Konohagakure, with bandages covering their eyes.

* * *

Kakashi is always late. This is a constant. Even when he is _summoned_. 

I forgot _when_ we were going to reveal what Rikka's family name was... Eh... it'll come up eventually...

The first rule of the Kensukai clan. You do not _talk_ about the Kensukai clan. (fight club pun - please don't hurt me)

What Ateshi said is only partly true, "Real combat is one against many" isn't _always _the case, but it is as far as combatants like him are concerned. Shinobi always travel in teams, and people like Ateshi often don't see their allies when they fight. This is also taken from the events of last chapter (Him against the Grass ninjas) and a line from Escaflowne (One of my favorite Anime) "Uneven fights happen on the real battlefield". The whole 'awkward embrace' thing is because she was kneeling about a foot away from him when he pulled her closer to him. This took her off balance, and for a while, he was the only thing keeping her up. (If he let go, she'd've fallen over) Oh, and that one jutsu? We'll put up a detailed explanation of it when he actually says the name of it.

Yay! Kayuu's _finally_ getting some measure of character development!!!

We chose to break up the Chouji/Dosu fight because neither of them make it to the finals anyway, so we're not upsetting too much. (Chouji loses, and Dosu is killed by Gaara) That, and we're just lazy.

I may have forgotten to mention this, but still just in case... The summon foxes can change into almost any _living_ thing. Kyo can't turn into a sword or a big shuriken or anything like that. Bamfing into a weapon is Enma's thing. Kyo is about... what... five, maybe six times the Chouji-ball's size? Yes. He can fling him. Kyo is a pervert, even a bit lecherous, and oddly prefers human women. He will get along well with Jiraiya. Very, _very_ well. Oh, and summons like Kyo can't be killed in the human world. They just poof away when they're mortally wounded and can't be re-summoned for a while. 'What's up with him and dogs' is that dogs have been trained for centuries to hunt foxes. Akamaru might not've been, but it's still funny, especially if you caught it without me telling you.

The technique Ateshi used was the Awaiken (Light Blade) which is easily a Jounin-level Ninjutsu. As it is performed using only one-hand seals, two can be active at once (one on each arm) However, this would be dangerous even most Jounin. Due to the chakra cost needed to activate it, and _keep_ it active, Ateshi can hold one (If he starts with his max chakra) active for about a minute, and two for around 20 seconds before he runs out of chakra completely. (Kakashi or other Jounin could probably keep one active for around 5 minutes, and Chuunin like Iruka probably wouldn't have enough chakra to use it efficiently in the first place.) This jutsu is a more powerful version of the Hitsume, which are the two unique combat-jutsu of Awaigakure. (there are others, but none of those can inflict wounds, and most have no use whatsoever on the battlefield)

Who's the old geezer with the bandages over his eyes? Just wait until the next chapter; it's _all_ about him.

Kage Buyo - Shadow of the Dancing Leaf

Shishi Rendan - Lion Combo (Lion Barrage)

Hitsume - It is meant to mean 'Light Claw' but can have many more meanings than thus. 'Hi' can mean just about anything from 'no' to 'spoon'. (Thus, Naruto asking "Spoon claw?") An alternate proper meaning could be 'Sun Claw'. It's true that, if you are burnt severely enough, the wound _does_ feel frozen, but the freezing feeling of the Hitsume is probably due to how it can specifically damage the nerves. (Thus the torture)

Baika no Jutsu - Multi-Size Technique

Nikudan Sensha - Human Bullet Tank

Hitai-ite: Forehead protector

Himeiko - literally 'Epitaph Child' (Himei - Epitaph, Ko - child) An epitaph is an inscription or document made to honor the dead. (Like a tombstone) This will be explained later. It _can_ also be mistaken for 'Princess Orphan' (Hime - Princess, Iko - Orphan) This however, is incorrect.

Kenpou - "Sword Art"; a play on 'ninpou' which means "Ninja Art" Ateshi can make use of four Kensukai clan techniques, three of which are kenpou. These are, for the most part, intensely simple to use, and merely require the substantial amount of chakra needed to use them. (There _are_ a lot more than just four, but Ateshi can't use them. And probably never _will_ be able to. They take _that_ much training)

Tenkuuha - "Ether Edge" Similar to Asuma's Hien, it uses chakra molded over a blade to create an intensely sharp edge. (Tenkuu - Ether, Ha - Edge (of a blade)) It _is_ however, much less focused than the Hien, and requires much more chakra to be as effective.

Soushouryuu - Twin Rising Dragons

Kamaitachi - Cutting Whirlwind

Byakugan - White Eye

Jyuuken - Gentle Fist

Aniki - Big/Older Brother

Nii-chan - Brother (Chan being an affectionate suffix)

Daisho - (lit) Big and Small. This refers to the classic samurai pair of Katana and Wakizashi. (Note: _two_ swords)

Suna Shunshin - The Suna equivalent of the Shunshin technique (Also known as the 'bamfy-move' or 'teleport' which Kakashi frequently makes use of.)

Hajime - Start/begin


	12. Sanken

YAY! Now we get to introduce _two new OCs_!

I am quite happy about this.

While watching an old Japanese movie, I started thinking... Why the hell aren't there any blind swordsmen in Naruto? So, I fit one into the plot. (He filled in quite a few holes actually, and quickly grew into a big character in the overall plot of the fic)

Heh, now you find out the _reason_ we didn't have Rikka in the prelims... heheh...

* * *

As the old man walked through the streets, he drew the eyes of many who were previously busy with various tasks of their own. His hair was peppered grey, short and spiked back with signs that his hairline was slowly retreating. Wearing a tattered, dark red yukata made him stand out even further. It wasn't long before the man stopped just short of running into someone on the street. "Excuse me young man..." He said, knocking the boy out of his stupor as he looked up from his feet.

"How did you know I was a guy?" He asked as murmurs ran through several of the onlookers heard the voice of the unsettlingly androgynous young man.

"Well, you don't _sound_ like a woman." The old man said.

"Honestly, I'm a seventeen-year-old man who _looks _like a fourteen-year-old girl." The boy said, his voice stricken with anxiety. He too had his eyes covered, but instead by a long white cloth which nearly trailed along the ground. Everything about him was plain and white; the loose unzipped jacket he wore over a blank t-shirt, the bleached leather belt and jeans. The only thing that wasn't white in his wardrobe was the black cloth of the Leaf forehead protector tied just above his blindfold, which blended into his waist-length, jet-black hair.

"Eh?" The old man grunted.

"A very _flat_ fourteen-year-old girl." The boy replied.

"Well, you don't _look_ like a girl to _me_." The old man said, laughing as he reached out to pat the boy on the shoulder and missed by about six inches. "Eh... well, it's good fortune I found someone... I need help getting around here." He added.

"Fine..." The boy said, grabbing the old man's arm. "Where would you like to go?"

"Well, I don't know. As long as we wind up somewhere I can sleep, or wherever the whoever runs this place is, I don't really care..." He answered, chuckling. "So, what should I call you, boya?"

"My name is Hy-" He started, coughing. "Hatenshi."

"Heh... a fine name..." He said, chuckling.

Hatenshi sighed. "So, what is it you _do_? You _are_ a swordsman, by the look of it."

"I'm a fourth-generation samurai. Nowadays I just travel about, doing various bodyguard jobs..."

"So you're a hired sword then..."

Quickly dodging the subject, the old man said; "Well Hatenshi, I say we go find some food."

"You sure you've got the _money_ for it?" Hatenshi asked.

"Just because I may _look_ poor, it doesn't mean I _AM_ poor." The old man said, aggravated.

"Okay, just remember I'm not going to pay for you... what is your name, anyway?" Hatenshi asked, when he wanted to say his name while realizing he didn't even know it.

He chuckled for a short while before answering; "My name is Kensukai Sanken."

"I know a guy by that name..." A young girl said as she turned away from a small fruit cart after hearing the old man.

"I've never seen you around here before..." Hatenshi said, looking down at the leaf protector tied into her hoodie pocket.

"I'm new around here... my name's Rikka." She said. "I came here with two guys; Haburi Kayuu and Kensukai Ateshi."

"Oh, you did now?" Sanken asked. "And where might these boys... _be _exactly?"

"They're still busy taking the Chuunin exams..." Rikka said. "They should be back before tomorrow, I think..."

"Then, would you mind if I waited with you to meet them when they get back? I might be related to the boy..." Sanken said, smiling.

"I don't see why not..." Rikka muttered.

"Great! We were on our way to find something to eat, eh?" Sanken asked, after a nod he couldn't see, Hatenshi patted him on his shoulder a moment later instead. "So then, would you like to come along too?"

"I might as well..." Rikka said. "Where to then?"

---

As the three exited a local restaurant famous for it's barbeque pork, Sanken was chuckling, one arm over his head, scratching his neck. "Heheh... sorry for having you pay..."

"No problem. I offered to anyway." Rikka said, if anything relieved at the lessened weight of her coin purse.

"So you _are_ poor..." Hatenshi muttered.

"I never said that..." The old man scoffed.

"Oi... let's just head back to my place and wait for the boys then, eh?" Rikka asked, obviously perturbed at their pointless bickering. With Ateshi and Kayuu, it was worth it, it was just fun to _watch_, but the occurrences now were a humor she just didn't appreciate.

"Yeah, sure." Hatenshi sighed.

"Neither of you would happen to know how to play shogi, would you?" Sanken asked, smiling.

---

Hatenshi was broke. He had a nasty habit of taking people up on their bets, and the old man was _very_ good at shogi.

"How the hell did you get so good? You're _blind_!" Hatenshi roared as he watched the wrinkled shogi master face off against their young hostess.

"Sight isn't everything you know." Sanken muttered. "As long as you know where the pieces are, it doesn't matter if you see them or not."

"Pawn. 5C." Rikka said, scooting a piece forward one square. The old man responded by merely smirking and pushing a piece forward three squares.

"Hmm... not bad..." Rikka said as the door opened.

"He's better than you thought, isn't he?" Hatenshi asked.

"Not really." Rikka muttered, scooting a piece forward before leaving to meet the boys at the door. "Mate."

"Hah! She saw through my bluff! Damn smart that one." The old man said, as he picked up the piece she just moved, examining the grooves on it to confirm his defeat.

"Two questions..." Kayuu said solemnly. "How was your day, and why the hell is there an old codger in my seat?"

"Well you're perkier than usual." Rikka muttered, rolling her eyes. "There a _reason_ Ateshi isn't here? Or does you new attitude have to do with that?"

"Idiot bastard wore himself out. He's in the hospital. Chakra exhaustion." Kayuu said as he walked past her to the hallway leading to his 'bedroom'.

"Idiot _bastard_, eh?" Rikka muttered. "You really _are_ in a good mood, aren't you?"

"Shut. Up." Kayuu grumbled at he made his way to bed, slamming the door closed behind him.

"No dinner for you then..." Rikka said under her breath, softly shaking her head.

"So, what _is_ for dinner?" Sanken asked, and at a glare from Hatenshi, held up what was formerly the boy's moneybag, and said; "I can pay!"

"Heh... well, there's a ramen shop I know about..." Rikka said, chuckling.

"You really _haven't_ been here that long, have you?" Hatenshi asked, seemingly perplexed as to how she could only remember one restaurant, even if it was just a ramen stand.

"Like I said... No, I haven't." Rikka stated, scowling. "I should check on Ateshi anyway... let's go..."

---

Ateshi awoke with a groan, and opened his eyes to the estranged sight of a wrinkled old face hovering just above his own. Sanken loudly grunted as Ateshi took the first act his instincts would allow. Smashing his fist into the side of the old man's jaw.

"Heeee's awake." Sanken said, taking a moment to reclaim his senses, rubbing his sore cheek.

"That bruise is proof of it old man." Hatenshi chuckled. A nurse present at the time helped him into a nearby bed, saying something about a fractured jawbone.

"So who's the old man?" Ateshi asked.

"Apparently, he's a relative of yours..." Rikka answered, to a gaze of spiteful shock from the boy.

"If his right hook's any indication, yeah, we're probably related." The old man chuckled. "My name's Sanken. I bet you can't guess what my family name is..." Ateshi merely grunted in response. "Not so talkative, eh? Well... with our clan's history, it's understandable..."

"Your... clan?" Hatenshi asked, confused.

"Ehhh... the clan disbanded, went their separate ways after nearly wiping themselves out... about half a century ago..." Sanken muttered. "So, boy, where's your katana? I took a look through the equipment you had on you when they brought you in..."

"I don't have one... I left it..." Ateshi paused for a moment. "Back... home..." He winced at the thought of it.

Rikka leaned over to the old man, whispering; "He just left home, really... can't go back either... they'd probably kill him." Sanken grunted in acknowledgement.

"So, where are we?" Ateshi asked, irritation lining his tone.

"The hospital, where else?" Rikka said bluntly. "You were moved here after the preliminary matches were finished, along with anyone else with wounds. Which, was just about everyone."

"I tell you, my jaw is _fine_..." Sanken muttered as he broke away from the nurse and started for the door.

"Don't leave the hospital old man, you still need a place to sleep, and I actually want to be able to _find_ you when I'm done with this idiot." Rikka said, turning back to Ateshi. "Chakra exhaustion? What are you, stupid?" Which only served to earn her a glare from the boy.

"So, who the hell is this guy?" Ateshi asked. Rikka sat down on the bed Sanken had previously vacated and begun the introductions.

---

As Sanken stepped out of the room, he heard two suppressed gasps from his right. The nurse that followed him out asked; "What are you girls doing here?"

"I told you we'd get caught, pig..." The first said.

"Shut up forehead, you were just as curious as me..." Piped the second.

"What are you two girls curious about? Maybe I can answer a couple questions..." Sanken said.

"Well... I saw you three walk by and... well..." Ino blushed as she said this, darting away.

Sakura chased after her, yelling; "What, now Sasuke-kun isn't _good enough_ for you!?"

Sanken chuckled at what he imagined was a hilarious spectacle. Hatenshi stepped out of the room, soon followed by Rikka and Ateshi. "Well, I guess you can bunk with me for a while... Just remember to _bathe_." Hatenshi said sternly.

The nurse chuckled before saying; "Two girls just ran off, the blonde looked a bit flustered... I think someone's got a crush on you." She winked at Ateshi before walking down the hallway.

Ateshi sighed. Right now, he couldn't stand any of the blondes he knew...

* * *

Yukata - (lit) Bath/Bathing Clothes. A simplified kimono, yukata are common Japanese summer wear (even in modern times) and are often worn to festivals. As with kimono, yukata can be worn by either gender, contrary to several common stereotypes. (Kimono and Yukata are both significantly more simplified in male versions) Further simplified versions are often seen at bath houses and hotels in Japan, and even in other parts of the world. (If you wear a bath robe when you get out of the shower; those are basically, or possibly based _on_, the kind of yukata found at said baths or hotels)

Hyuuga Hatenshi - An androgynous name for an equally androgynous boy... 'Ha' meaning Leaf, 'Tenshi' meaning Angel. Leaf Angel or 'Angel of the Leaves' (The fact that he's from the Village Hidden in the Leaves must have _nothing_ to do with his name... ) Honestly, if you hadn't figured out he was a Hyuuga by now, congratulations; you're an idiot. He, like all other known Hyuuga (Neji excluded) has a name starting with an 'H' line sound (Ha, Hi, Fu, He, Ho) His Byakugan is different from others (Honestly, they can't _all_ be _exactly_ alike, right?) in that it has less range, but comparatively, can remain active longer. (Thus his ability to just walk around blindfolded. He sees right through it) He obviously doesn't _like_ being a Hyuuga for some reason (Which may or may not be explained in a later chapter) thus the blindfold hiding his eyes. (Not that it hides the fact that he's a Hyuuga, it's just a symbolic thing) Just for the record; Hatenshi is a Genin, and lives near, but not _IN_ the Hyuuga compound.

Sanken - Sanken (as one word) means 'to be seen here and there' implicating his wandering nature. Also, it can mean 'three swords' (Santhree, Kensword) which... _might_ be suggesting something... (I love wordplay...)

Shogi - Also known as 'Japanese Chess', it is played with similar rules and pieces as standard chess (although the pieces in question are tiles, parallels can be drawn between shogi and chess in that several pieces move in a similar fashion) it is the favorite game of Nara Shikamaru, and requires precise strategic skill to play properly.


	13. In Wont of a Blissful Oblivion

Heheh... now we've got _most _of our OCs... (There's still a few more though)

Okay, I'm sorry to say this, but there's been some hiccups in and I haven't been able to get this up, even though I've been trying for about a week. But, it's up now.

Also, in the title, "In Wont of a Blissful Oblivion" Means; 'to be used to no one knowing you exist'. As the use of 'wont' means 'to be accustomed to' or 'to become accustomed to'. This word really isn't used correctly very often... (I even looked it up to double-check) It really has nothing to do with this chapter, though. If anything at all... I think... 

Anyway, we've got a lot of the big points in the fic figured out, but there's still gaps between those that we have no idea what to do with. (This, is one of those gaps) So, if the chapters don't come very quickly, or it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere, that's why.

BEGIN DREAM SEQUENCE!!!

* * *

_Kayuu looked down, tears threatening to spill over as he fell to his knees, and stretched a quivering hand out to the body on the ground, a kunai embedded in its chest. "No...nii-chan...don't...don't die...please..." The tears escaped their confines as Kayuu took in the now lifeless eyes of his brother. Kayuu's breath hitched in his throat as those lifeless eyes shifted, the gaze locking with his own, those empty eyes somehow communicating great hatred. _

"You failed." The corpse said.

"No! I tried, I did, but they-" Kayuu tried to explain himself.

"You failed the village. You failed the clan. You failed me. **You gave up.**" The dead boy continued. The dojo they were in vanished, only to be replaced with a burning village, screams echoing through the night. Kayuu clutched his head-the screams filled his mind, he couldn't block them out-the intensity increased, and he heard a new scream join them, one he recognized as his own. "You are weak," The corpse of his brother said as it slowly got up, pulling the kunai out of its chest as it did so. "And the weak have only one fate." The words of Kayuu's dead brother echoed above the chaos as the kunai arced downward.

---

Rikka was up at dawn, as usual. Also as usual, the building could collapse and her teammates would probably sleep through it. After waking up violently several times the previous night, Kayuu was still exhausted, and even an explosive tag to the forehead wouldn't get Ateshi up before noon most days. So, she decided to continue her exploration of Konoha. It _IS_ a rather large village.

After a rather short walk in a new direction, one of which happened to have two familiar, albeit _fatigued_ faces. Rikka walked into the flower shop to see Ino asleep in her seat at the main counter, and Sakura propped up in a corner. "What's wrong with you two?" Rikka asked.

"We were up talking all night... Seems miss pig's gay." Sakura groaned, pointing out her half-dead blonde counterpart.

"She's twelve. She's not old enough to _decide_ she's a lesbian yet." Rikka muttered.

"That's what I said!!!" Sakura yelled. "Tch... as long as it gets her away from my Sasuke-kun, I don't care..."

"Well, there has to be a reason _why_ she thinks she's a lesbian..." Rikka muttered, rubbing her chin inquisitively. "Liiiike a girl she has a crush on?"

"The girl you were with yesterday..." Sakura answered.

Without a doubt, the most difficult task in all of Rikka's dozen years of living was keeping herself from laughing when she heard this. "You're serious? Pah! There's like... five _years_ between their ages!"

Sakura looked stunned. "You're kidding... she _couldn't_ have been more than three years older..."

Rikka was being careful not to reveal Hatenshi's gender, while not affirming their assumption that he was female. "Yup... I'm pretty sure." Rikka chuckled. "I'll see you later... I've got some things to do. Tell Ino I'll introduce the two of 'em if she wants."

Sakura smiled and nodded. Rikka walked out, and as soon as she thought she was far enough away, began laughing maniacally. She had a plan, now she just needed to figure out how to implement it...

---

Ateshi woke up about noon, as was normal for him, to see Kayuu trying to kill himself with caffeine. "You know, drowning yourself in coffee really isn't the best way to go..." Ateshi said smugly. Apparently, he was quite a bit more of a morning person than his teammate. Needless to say, he wasn't a morning person either, but after the night Kayuu had, _everyone_ was a morning person compared to him.

"Fuck off." Kayuu grumbled.

"Oooh... feisty today..." Ateshi said, prodding at what he assumed to be Kayuu's last nerve. "You know you look like _shit_, right?"

"I... I had a recurring nightmare, alright? So just... leave me alone." Kayuu pleaded.

"Bad memories, or bad bladder?" Ateshi asked, after watching Kayuu twitch for a few seconds, he found himself against the wall with a _very_ sore jaw.

As Kayuu walked over to deliver another painful blow, he realized he actually felt... _better_. He wasn't depressed, or dwelling over his fears and mistakes any longer. Instead, these feelings were replaced by rage, an emotion he knew all too well. When he finally reached Ateshi, instead of dislocating his _skull_, he reached out his hand to help him to his feet. "Thanks..." Kayuu muttered.

"Whatever..." Ateshi said, brushing dust off himself. "You know, that really _hurt..._" He added, rubbing his cheek.

"Ateshi..." Kayuu said, as he saw the boy heading for the door. "You and I are fighting in the first match." He watched as his teammate paused for a moment, and then continued out into the hallway, and out into the village. A broad grin lined the features of both boys.

---

Hatenshi couldn't sleep. It wasn't the old man snoring from the sofa in the next room, it wasn't the odd happenings of yesterday, nor was it even the dozens of sake bottles scattered across his bedroom. Tomorrow was the two-year anniversary of the worst day in his life. When the world as he knew it, ended. He was going to force an answer out of that bastard Hiashi even if he had to beat it out of him... "Why did she die?"

At this, the door was flung open, and his wrinkled guest barged into his room. It was no surprise that he was immediately on his back, having slipped on one of the many empty sake bottles. "Oi... boya... have you been drinking?" The old man asked.

"What does it matter?" As he said this, Hatenshi realized it was light outside. He spent the entire night staring at the picture in his hand...

"That wasn't the first time I've slipped on a sake bottle. It's happened so many times I remember the damn _shape_ on my foot..." Sanken replied, sitting up. "But it _was_ the first time I'd slipped on a bottle I hadn't emptied _myself_."

"I don't think you could understand what I'm going through."

"Boy. Do you see these swords?" Sanken asked, patting his hand on his daisho. At a grunt from Hatenshi, he continued. "They belonged to my father. And his father, and grandfather. To one of the first members of my clan."

"What relevance could this poss-" Hatenshi was cut off as the old man continued.

"I took these blades from my father's corpse, on the battlefield where my clan destroyed itself." Hatenshi was sure the old man was glaring at him from under those bandages. "I was nearly half your age."

After a long, anxious pause, Hatenshi finally tried to speak. "I... I didn't..." At this, the old man merely laughed.

"It was a long time ago, boy." He said, standing up. "I got over it. Just like _you_ will need to get over whatever has such a tight hold on you." After another pause, he continued, tapping several empty bottles with his feet. "Now, are you going to lead me through this drunkard's maze, or just leave me to fall on my ass again?"

They both shared a hearty chuckle as Hatenshi jumped down to clear a path to the door. Maybe he'd let Hiashi have just _one _more day of peace...

---

After finishing the pot of coffee and a light breakfast, he left to find some tea. Never again would he _choose_ to drink _that_ from sheer lack of selection. On his way to the only store he knew, he decided to take a shortcut through a series of training fields. He was nearly through to a street just past the tree-line when he heard a colossal crash. As he looked over, he witnessed a green flash pass through a boulder. As the blur sped to a halt, the massive stone shattered. _Holy shit..._ Kayuu thought as he dashed closer.

"If I cannot catch one hundred stones, I shall do one thousand push-ups!" The blur yelled as it dashed back into the cloud of dust. "And if I cannot do that, I shall run five hundred laps around Konoha!"

Kayuu finally recognized who it was, and stepped out from the bushes. "And what if you can't do that, Gai-san?" Kayuu asked, thinking; _I'll be DAMNED if I won't get him to teach me how to do that!!!_

"Then I shall carry this shattered boulder between here and Sunagakure ten times _without dropping a single stone_!!!" Gai yelled.

"And... why are you doing all this?" Kayuu asked.

"Two of my youthful students are in the hospital right now! I shall train for them as well until they both recover!"

"I thought Tenten was fine..." Kayuu asked as the eccentric man dropped to the ground and began his promised thousand push-ups.

"She _shall_ recover soon, but the medics requested to observe her condition for at least two days before allowing her to continue her standard training regimen." Gai said swiftly. "But my handsome Lee..."

The man began tearing up at the thought of his student's severe injuries. Kayuu swiftly thought of a way to try and keep him from breaking down completely. He didn't _want_ to know what would happen then... "One thousand you said?" Kayuu also dropped to the ground, and began doing push-ups.

"And what are you doing?" Gai asked, sitting up.

"Training." Kayuu answered. "Until Lee recovers, I'll take on what he does daily."

Gai chuckled, wiping away the start of his tears. "You couldn't possibly do Lee's training."

"Why not?" Kayuu asked as he continued the push-ups.

"To be honest, training at his level requires physical strength that rivals most _Jounin_."

"So?"

"Haha! I like your spunk. You remind me of myself at your age!" When Gai said this, Kayuu was dumbstruck. He honestly didn't know whether to be flattered or break for the trees and pretend the conversation never happened.

"Sooo... then..."

"If you intend to train like Lee, you'll need to start small!" Gai said.

_Yes.._. Kayuu thought. _In a month, I'll be stronger than that idiot roommate of mine..._ By all accounts, he was severely underestimating Gai's _unique_ training style.

---

Ateshi knocked on the open hospital door, trying to look suave while leaning up against the doorframe. He was immediately greeted by a smiling face as Tenten slid out of her bed to meet him. "Oi... stay there... you're still hurt, right?" Ateshi said, swiftly walking over to her, sitting her back onto the bed.

"I... yeah. I did get pretty beat up, huh?" She asked as she slid back under the bed sheets.

"That's kinda why you're still in the hospital. Sorry I didn't come see you yesterday..." Ateshi said, swiftly stopped by Tenten.

"It doesn't matter, I was asleep anyway..." She muttered.

"Well, if you say so..." Ateshi chuckled as she slipped her hand into his.

"So, what about Neji and Lee?" Tenten asked.

"Well, if I heard right... Neji made it to the main matches, and..." Ateshi sighed before continuing. "Lee's not doing so good..."

Tenten's face was wrought with horror. "What happened to him!?"

"I don't know! All I heard was that he was pretty badly beat up, but he's gonna live through it..." At this, she slumped back in her bed.

"Well... what about you?" She asked, trying to take her mind off the painful subject.

"First match. Against Kayuu."

"He's on your team, isn't he?" She asked, sitting up.

"So? I'll still fight him." Ateshi said.

"Well, he's probably training to beat you by now, strong as you are..." Tenten said, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a provocative glance one would normally expect only from someone twice her age.

Needless to say, this made Ateshi _VERY _uneasy. It was about then that Ateshi came to a horrifying realization. At 16, he'd never even _kissed_ a girl before. This was pathetic, made even more so by the... _unique_ courting methods of his village. "Tenten..." Ateshi started, even against his dark skin it was apparent he was blushing profusely. "I mean... I'm flattered... but... I mean... I... erm..."

It was at this moment a certain duo decided to stumble in. Gai was still jogging in place while Kayuu nearly _crawled_ into the room, panting in his sweat-soaked clothes. "Tenten! Can you believe this boy can barely handle an _hour_ of training!?"

"Just... shut up and get me some water dammit..." Kayuu managed between breaths. As he stumbled over to where the couple sat, He muttered; "How you can stand this..._ TRAINING_ is beyond me..." As he sat down on the adjacent bed he added; "How can you _HANDLE _him!?"

"We worked up to my team's current training regimen. They are a youthful bunch, but even _they_ had low limits when I was appointed their sensei." Gai said. "_You _insisted you were up to Lee's standard training."

"And you're still _ALIVE_!?" Tenten yelled as she dropped back onto her bed, unaware Ateshi was holding her up.

"You got _HIM_ to train you?" Ateshi asked. "What the hell's wrong with you? You look like hell..."

"I carried... a rock... _three times my size_... around Konoha. _TWICE_." Kayuu stated bluntly, still breathing heavily.

"Before he collapsed." Gai added. "Lee could have managed at least _twenty_ laps."

"You've got to be kidding..." Kayuu muttered.

Tenten leaned over and whispered; "Yeah, Lee probably would've only managed ten..."

At a disbelieving glance from Kayuu, Tenten started laughing, soon followed by Gai and Ateshi. "What're _you_ laughing about!" Kayuu growled at Ateshi. "I bet you're not even _training_ yet!"

"Yeah, I suppose I should get to that..." Ateshi said, stroking his chin while somewhat wishing he had a beard to play with. "Maybe the one-eyed-wonder..."

"_KAKASHI_!!! My eternal rival!!!" Gai shouted. Deafening all in earshot. "His _hip_ ways are no match for the FLAMES OF YOUTH!!! You shall train with me and your friend!!!"

"Over my disemboweled carcass." Kayuu stated firmly.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'll find _someone_ to train me, and whup your boy's ass in our match." Ateshi said, laying flat at the foot of Tenten's bed. When he glanced up at Tenten, their eyes met and time seemed to slow for a moment.

"Like hell you will... There's _no one_ in this whole damn village with more pure _strength_ than this guy and Lee!" Kayuu said, pointing back to Gai.

"You say sumthin'?" Ateshi asked, his gaze never leaving that of the girl who's bed he was sharing.

"_Ohhhh..._ His _HIP ATTITUTE_ reminds me of my RIVAL _Kakashi_!!!" Gai said, letting his eccentric ways flow freely, before adding; "COME! Let us _continue your training_ so that you may be _victorious_, and burn brightly with the FLAMES OF YOUTH!!!" As he snatched Kayuu by the collar and began dragging him to the door.

Ateshi could've sworn Kayuu was reaching out and gasping for help as they vanished from sight. "How do you put up with him?" He asked.

"I usually just block out what he says after he starts ranting..." Tenten said. "The first and last five minutes are usually pretty good though..."

The both of them chuckled, when that died down, an awkward silence followed. "So... uhh... what was your hometown like?" Tenten asked. "I only got the summarized version earlier..."

"Well..." Ateshi was dumbfounded. He had no idea what his hometown was 'like'. "I mean... it's quiet. Really quiet. I guess... It's what you get when your village's been at war for centuries..."

"Centuries?" Tenten asked, nearly shouting.

"Yeah... We've been in a stalemate since it started. I mean... I can't say what the village was like, I never went out to the main of it, but I can tell you how it treated the war..." Ateshi said, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "The basic policy is, you fight. No questions. Everyone fights from age ten on, exce-"

"AGE _TEN_!?" Tenten yelled in surprise.

"Yeah. Well... with me it was eight... but I had some prob-"

"_EIGHT_!?"

"Yes."

"You mean to tell me you've been fighting in this war since you were _eight_." Tenten said, almost glaring at him.

"Yeah. Because I was always getting into fights with the other kids, and the elders decided to send me out, where it didn't matter if I was an angry brat or not."

"Oh..." Tenten said, lowering her gaze, tilting her head away from him.

"Anyway, I'll continue... Everyone fights from age ten on except women, wh-" Ateshi started. Bringing women into the conversation was something Ateshi soon dearly regretted.

"WHAT!? Are you saying women aren't as _good_ as men!?" She yelled.

"No! I mean, they go out at ten too... they just don't fight after fifteen..." Ateshi said, trying to calm the raging girl.

"Well there better be a damn good reason for it..." Tenten said as she settled herself back in her bed.

"Because, after fifteen, most of the women in my village are pregnant." This, of course, knocked Tenten into a stupor. "I assume it's the same in Kayuu's village..."

"Why?" Tenten asked, still trying to get over the initial shock of it.

"Because... numbers." Ateshi said, simply. "At any time, there's somewhere between five hundred and a thousand people in my village. It varies year-to-year... Anyway, our villages need soldiers more than anything... they need _numbers_. Or else we'll all die off."

"So then..." Tenten started, still trying to process all of this information.

"At age fifteen, a girl is paired off with a boy about the same age. If he dies, the elders pick someone else to replace him. Then..." Ateshi was stopped once again by the inquisitive young girl.

"So then... you've got someone... back home?" She asked.

"Nope... I don't know if it's because I wouldn't want to anyway, or because the elders _really_ don't want another 'me' running around, I don't know, but I never got paired off."

"Wait... another you?"

"I was a _fun_ little ball of chaos as a kid, remember? Did more damage to _us_ than the enemy..." Ateshi said, bordering on sarcasm.

"Oh... right." Tenten said. When she was about to speak again, Ateshi took this sweet, sweet opportunity to cut _her_ off for a change...

"While the kids are growing up, their mothers teach them the basics of combat and technique, using their five years in the field as grounds to teach by."

"Then, your mom-?" Tenten asked.

"Taught me just about everything until she died... I was seven then. Can't remember much from that year, had something to do with a cataclysm... I'm still a bit fuzzy on the details, but I'm pretty sure the Yonbi tore through the village..." Ateshi said. "Anyway, after I got hit with... _whatever_ it was... I could barely move... I was nearly nine before I could fight on par with kids my same age again..."

"Aaand that's when you _started_ fighting kids your own age again... right?" Tenten asked, smirking.

"Yeah..." Ateshi muttered, scratching the back of his neck with one arm, a classic pose.

"But wait... your Kekkei Genkai... wouldn't they want-" Tenten started again, only to be cut short.

"Cousin. Remember? She's fourteen. Next year, she has kids. 'Ts'a shame too... she fights better'n _me_..." Ateshi chuckled as he said it.

"So, who trained you after your mom?"

"Uncle. He trained me and her together... wasn't long after my mother died that hers did too..." Ateshi said solemnly. "Well, anyway, he taught me just about everything I know... I still can't even _touch_ him though..."

"What? He can't be _that_ good..." Tenten said playfully.

"No..." Ateshi said, his tone darkly serious. After thinking for a moment, he continued; "I have no doubt in my mind... that he could kill Gai-sensei without sustaining so much as a scratch."

At this, Tenten was truly shocked. Not only couldn't she believe it, but she'd never heard him so _serious_ before... he even sounded a little... frightened. "I'm sure he's not that good..." She said cheerfully, chuckling as she tried to knock Ateshi out of his apprehensive state.

"You know... I'm sure Gai has a name... something that's given to him because he's just _that good_... right?"

"Yeah... Konoha no Kedakai Aoi Mojuu... The Prideful Green Beast of Konoha..." Tenten said. His tone was still cold, despite her forced cheerful demeanor.

"My uncle has one too... Shinku no Yakaze..." Ateshi paused. "_The Night of Crimson Wind_."

Tenten was stunned at least, wondering for a moment what to say next. "I... guess he's pretty strong then..."

"He's that one in every generation with chakra control precise enough to use _Shunpo_ over short distances... This means tha-"

Tenten was starting to think it was a bad idea to interrupt him while he was in this sort of mood, but she had to ask; "What's _Shunpo_?"

"It's a high-speed travel technique..."

"Like the Shunshin?" Tenten asked.

"Shunshin? No... I don't think so... this is just a dash... albeit a very _fast_ dash... it usually takes years to get it right without killing yourself..."

"How could you kill yourself with it? It's just a-"

"I don't think you get just how fast I'm talking about... Training to use it, more people die from the intense friction of the air they pass through than actually smashing into something... The whole premise of it is to get to somewhere else, and fast. A week-long trip done in mere hours." Ateshi stopped for a moment to take in Tenten's expression; a mix of surprise, curiosity, and even fear. "This technique has it's bad parts too... it's almost unusable in combat, and it's very easy to kill yourself doing it. Because once you start going, you can't stop without either breaking something, or getting where you're going."

"So then, you can use it?" Tenten asked.

"Yup. I can Shunpo anywhere between a mile and three. I can't stop anywhere shorter than a mile, I can't even stop _at_ a mile if I was trying to go further at the start..." Ateshi said. "But _HE_, can Shunpo about _five feet_. This means he can use the Kensukai family's most powerful technique... I know it's got a proper name, but I've only ever known it as _Tenshu Ontei_."

Tenten paused for a moment, wondering what to say next. "..._God Step_..." She muttered, just before hearing a voice from the door.

"Your uncle wouldn't happen to be Kensukai _Yaukiri_, would he?" The wrinkled old samurai asked.

"Why're you here?" Tenten asked, as Ateshi nodded.

"Talked to his creepy pale friend. He said Ateshi'd be here." Hatenshi said, walking in behind the old man. "It was _Senken_ here that wanted to talk to him."

"I'll meet you at your house tomorrow morning. That's when you two start your training." Sanken said, in an almost stern, fatherly voice.

"Two?" Ateshi asked.

"I'm teaching Hatenshi here, too." The old man added, trying to pat the Hyuuga boy on his shoulder and missing by several inches. "Now, we're leaving. I've got other things to do."

"Like _what_ old man?" Hatenshi griped as he was almost _literally_ dragged out the door.

As they walked down the hall, Sanken muttered to himself; "So... Shinku-Kiri no _Makaze_... is still alive..."

---

Kayuu was laying in the dirt, thinking as he watched the slowly shifting colors of the dusk sky;

_...I can't move...

* * *

_

Kayuu didn't just have that fucked-up dream and went back to sleep, oh no, he had that _same_ nightmare a grand total of _FOUR TIMES_ that night.

(singing) _Ino likes Hatenshi, Ino likes Hatenshiiiiiii_

No matter how much they hate each other, Ino and Sakura are still best friends... (like Naruto and Sasuke...)

Okay, to clarify, Sanken didn't _kill_ his father. He hid and watched as his parents died, then took his father's swords and his mother's pendant to remember them by. He was _ten_ at the time (thus saying '_nearly_' half Hatenshi's age) and the whereabouts of his mother's pendant have yet to be determined. (Meaning I haven't figured out if he lost it, pawned it off, still has it, or if I even give a damn. I'll probably have him mention something miniscule about what happened to it if I decide it's really not going to be in the plot anywhere)

And for the record, Ateshi is _SEVERELY_ underestimating Gai in his comparison to Yaukiri. However, Gai would _still_ almost certainly lose in a fair fight against him.

Shinku no Yakaze - I just thought I'd put it here, seeing as Ateshi _mispronounced it_. Shinku no Yakaze doesn't mean 'the night of crimson wind', it means 'night wind (Yakaze) of (no) crimson (Shinku)' which doesn't really make sense, so he changed it. I figure I don't need to put Gai's thing here, because it's right. Also, It's not even the right name. Sanken says Yaukiri's _proper_ title; 'Shinku (Crimson)-Kiri (Mist) no (of) Makaze (Evil Wind)', or "Evil Wind of Crimson Mist"

Shunpo - Try as I might, I just _couldn't_ find a proper translation for it. If you've seen Bleach, you should know what I'm talking about. They call it 'Flash Step'.

Shunshin (no Jutsu) - I'm pretty sure 'Shunshin' _also _means 'Flash Step'... but I can't really confirm it.

Tenshu Ontei - Yes, it does mean 'God (Tenshu) Step (Ontei)' If you want to find out what the totally badass _real_ name of it is, you'll just have to keep reading...

Yaukiri - 'Night Rain (Yau) Mist/Fog (Kiri)'. Basically, _worst night-time weather ever_, short of an actual storm.

Senken - No, Hatenshi didn't mispronounce it, nor was it a typo. 'Senken' (one word) means 'Ancient Sage'. Alternatively, it can also mean 'Hermit (Sen) Sword (Ken)'.


	14. Feminine Wiles

Kayuu awoke the next morning, in his own bed, to find a piece of paper taped to his forehead. Apparently, it was a note, and by the scribbled handwriting, he could only imagine it was Ateshi that wrote it. It read: "If we ever have to drag your ass home again, I'm gonna just drop you in a river." Despite his best efforts, a slight smirk forced itself onto his features.

---

Ateshi had left a few hours previous, having got up just after dawn. Or rather, he was woken up just after dawn... Apparently, the old man had a firecracker on him. Needless to say, an explosive to the groin, no matter how miniscule, is something that would get any man out of bed. Sanken and Hatenshi had come by to begin training, and Rikka was kind enough to let them in before she went about her daily routine; get up, make food, leave _just_ enough to remind Kayuu and Ateshi to cook their _own_ breakfasts, then clean up her room before leaving to explore the town.

Rikka's path took her by the Yamanaka flower shop again, to see Ino and Sakura in much better moods today, especially since they were back on '_good_' terms now that Ino seemed to lose a good portion of her interest in Sasuke. They still found something to argue about every other minute, and Ino still fawned over Sasuke whenever he was around, but she was much more subtle about it at least. Rikka meant to speak with Hatenshi on the matter of that girl, as she declined her offer to have her 'introduce them', saying something about doing things on her own. Rikka smirked when she thought back on it. She did want to find where Hatenshi lived at least, but she only knew the general vicinity of it, so that's where she decided to look today. Before she could find what she was looking for, a large building complex caught her eye. _So... this is _her_ house... is it?_ She thought, walking through the front gates. It was unclear whether the lone Hyuuga guarding the entryway let her pass because of her Konoha forehead protector, because she looked less threatening than some of the _dogs_ she'd seen around town, or more unlikely, that he merely hadn't _seen_ the tiny girl... In any case, she was through without incident, and began scouring the grounds.

"What're you doing here?" A rather high-pitched voice asked from behind her.

Turning, Rikka responded; "I'd ask the same of you, but it's obvious you live here... Might I ask where I could find Hyuuga _Hiashi_ by any chance?"

"What could you possibly want with my father?" The young girl asked.

"To be honest, I don't know... Just wanted a look at the man, perhaps..." Rikka said, falling back on an unnervingly stoic disposition. "He _is_ the rather famous head of the Hyuuga clan, after all..."

"Well, he's busy. He _IS_ the clan head after all..."

"At the hospital with your sister, no doubt..." Rikka said, causing the girl's eyes to widen slightly.

"How do you..." She started, before a man garbed in informal robes stepped out behind her from what appeared to be an office from what little Rikka could see of it.

"Hanabi... Who is this? Why is she here in our home?" The man asked, his tone strong and commanding.

"I... don't know father... I was just asking her." Hanabi said, before Rikka moved past her, and walked up to Hiashi.

When she was nearly half a foot from him, Rikka looked up into his face, and said bluntly; "You're a lot shorter than I remember..."

"What are you talking about? I've never met you befo-" Hiashi started, but Rikka seemed not to be done talking to him.

"Why aren't you with Hinata? She's in the hospital you know..." Rikka continued in the same strong tone.

"Of course I know, but my duties-"

"As a father come first." Rikka added, interrupting Hiashi mid-sentence once more.

"How _dare_ you speak to me of my own duties... such insolence..." Hiashi said, folding his arms over his chest, making himself look slightly more intimidating.

At this, Rikka merely walked past him, saying; "You disappoint me. I remember a better man than this, _Hiashi-daifu_..."

This caught Hiashi at a loss, but before he could regain his senses in the moment it took him to turn around, the silver-haired girl was gone. "...Impossible..." Hiashi muttered.

"Who was that, father?" Hanabi asked, walking up behind him.

"No one... important..." Hiashi muttered. "Go get ready to leave... We're going to see your sister."

---

Ateshi followed Sanken and Hatenshi to a vacant training field. Still unnerved by the... _interesting_ methods the two used to wake him, Ateshi was still quite perturbed as Sanken began to speak. "So, now I'll start training the both of you..."

"Both?" Ateshi asked.

"I agreed to train Hatenshi as well, remember? He could use some skill with a blade, and you need a sparring partner anyway." The old man said, nearly chuckling.

"Uhh... okay?" Ateshi muttered.

"Plus, his Byakugan, the Hyuuga Kekkei Genkai, allows him to see everything around him for a distance. An admirable ability that should increase his sword skills tenfold." Sanken added.

"...Ah." Ateshi muttered, turning to Hatenshi as he drew his short blades from the sheathes beneath his arms. It surprised him to see Hatenshi drew a simple black katana from a red saya.

"Where did you get _that_?" Ateshi said, amazed at the craftsmanship of the blade.

"We stopped by a weapons shop on the way here..." Hatenshi started.

"Curious though... There was a girl there. As soon as we mentioned it was for your training as well as Hatenshi's, she simply tossed us the blade and told us to be on our way..." Sanken added.

"Looked suspiciously like the girl you were with at the hospital yesterday..." Hatenshi said, eliciting an unexpected reaction from Ateshi.

"_SHE'S OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!?_ She needs at least another day to heal! I've got to go find her!" He'd nearly bound off when Sanken placed his hand firmly on the boy's shoulder.

"I think her parents know what's best for her. She was keeping off her feet, and it didn't look like she was doing much of anything but sitting." The old man said.

"But...!" Ateshi tried to make his case again, but the old man wouldn't have it.

"If you want, we can go see her _AFTER_ training. But for now, you need to learn to be less protective of the people you love, boy."

Ateshi tore his shoulder out from under the man's grip, and turned to face him. "All right then, let's get this over with..."

"Good. Now, what element are you?" The old man asked, eliciting a questioning glance from his new pupil.

"...Uhm... water... why?" Ateshi asked.

Sanken sighed. "The Himeiko element... I should've known... I am earth affinity, while Hatenshi is lightning affinity. Water may be the sole worst element for a Kensukai to bear."

Ateshi looked somewhere between mortified, stupefied, and utterly uncaring. "...why?"

"Water is... known for being quite difficult to tie into sword strikes..." Sanken said. "But, neither of you are anywhere _near_ that skill level yet, so we've got time to work on other things... Hatenshi, do what I showed you last night."

Hatenshi dropped into an attack stance and charged at Ateshi, his black blade beginning to glow blue. "Kenpou: Tenkuuha!"

Ateshi wasted no time in bringing both his blades up to block. "Kenpou: Hagekitai!"

A resounding crash was heard throughout Konoha, as an old man chuckled at the skill of his students. _This may be easier than I thought_...

---

Kayuu spent the day with Team Gai, or what was left of it, as Lee was still severely injured, and Tenten was off on medical leave. Gai had insisted to the Hokage that he, Neji and their guest were more than enough for a _D_ rank mission at least... Needless to say, by the end of the day, Kayuu shared the hate all Genin have for a certain cat...

---

Rikka used the rest of the day to spend some quality 'girl time' with Ino and Sakura at the Yamanaka flower shop. There was much gossip to be heard, as well as a few little things to know about the town and it's inhabitants. When Ino's mother came to take over the shop, Sakura left to stalk Sasuke, while Rikka and Ino went to meet up with Team 10. They were an amusing trio to say the least... Ino spent her time spouting gossip, Chouji constantly ate chips Rikka didn't even want to know _where_ he had them stored, and then there were the last two...

"So, Rikka, Ino tells me you're smart!" Asuma proclaimed. "Care for a game of shogi?"

Needless to say, Rikka won. Five times. "If you want to keep playing, we're going to need to bet something, because this is getting a little boring..." Rikka muttered.

"Why don't you try Shikamaru then?" Asuma asked, scooting the young genius in front of the board. "If she can beat _me_, she may even prove a bit of a challenge for you!"

"Why not? I'm bored..." The boy said lazily.

Ten minutes into the game, and Shikamaru had already paused to think twice. This was the third time, and at eleven minutes into the game, it appeared that Shikamaru was barely winning as he contemplated his next move. Surprisingly, his three teammates were looking over their shoulders at the game. Ino was actually _silent_ for more than a minute at a time, Asuma hadn't gone for another cigarette since he started watching the game, and Chouji had only eaten two bags of potato chips since Shikamaru decided to play. After Shikamaru spent another five seconds thinking, Ino shouted; "_Move something already_!" And as if on cue, the two players began moving pieces at a nearly impossible rate.

In the five seconds it took for Ino to gasp and exhale, the game was over nearly twenty moves later. "Checkmate." Shikamaru said firmly.

"How troublesome..." Rikka muttered. At this, Ino, Chouji, and Asuma spent a good ten seconds repeatedly glancing from Rikka to Shikamaru as the boy genius' eyes widened slightly. "What?" Rikka asked.

"Nothing..." The three said in unison as Shikamaru sighed.

"It _was_ a good game..." The boy genius said, holding out his hand to the girl, who, to his and the rest of Team 10's utter surprise, stood and walked around to stand next to Shikamaru.

She pulled his face closer to hers with a finger under his chin, and when they were almost close enough to kiss, the boy was blushing profusely. Rikka said, in the most seductive voice she could muster; "I _let_ you win."

When Rikka took her finger back and began to walk away, Shikamaru fell back into his seat, not realizing he'd risen off the bench several inches. All of Team 10 watched the silver-haired seductress walk back into the streets and out of sight. "That's _some_ woman..." Asuma muttered, finally reaching for another cigarette. He was forgetting the girl was only twelve, and younger than any member of his team for that matter. The rest of his team was the same way, Ino was slightly jealous of her forward attitude, Chouji was now _inhaling_ potato chips, and Shikamaru had a blush on his cheeks that seemed like it just wouldn't fade.

"This is going to be troublesome..." He muttered.

_So..._ Rikka thought to herself, _None of them could tell I was bluffing... This is going to make things SO much easier..._ as she walked home to gather a few things, she noticed that Kayuu was still training with Gai long after Neji had gone home. _He really is trying too hard..._

---

Hatenshi climbed out of the hole his flying form had created in a nearby storehouse wall. "Hagekitai, the counterattack. The most basic defense technique, used to beat the most basic _attack_ technique." Sanken said. "Now, Hatenshi, why don't _you_ try it?"

---

It was dusk by the time Shikamaru had composed himself to be seen in front of his parents. His blush was finally gone, his calm demeanor returned, and while he walked, he stared at the colors of the clouds. _What's wrong with me?_ He thought. _It's not like I care about the girl... she was just good, is all. Nearly as good as me... _He stopped. _And her breath... it smelled so sweet..._ At this, his blush returned in full force. "Damn..." He muttered. "This girl is already more troublesome than I thought she'd be..."

When he'd finally made it home, his mother nearly _burst_ out the door. "Why are you home so late!?" Before he could answer, she continued with the last thing Shikamaru could ever have thought. "..._Awww..._ Is this your little girlfriend?"

Shikamaru whipped around to see Rikka standing directly behind him, a broad smile gracing her delicate features. "GAAAH!!! When did _YOU_ get there!?" Shikamaru yelled in a _very_ uncommon fashion for him.

Rikka merely shrugged and smiled again. "Well, come in then! I want you to meet my husband... _SHIKAKU_! Come meet your boy's girlfriend!!!" She yelled, causing Shikamaru to wince.

"She's not my..." He started, as his mother whisked them both into a large chair in their living room. Oddly choosing the chair, which barely had room for the both of them, instead of the sofa.

A lethargic figure walked out from the back rooms, and planted himself firmly on the couch his wife had left open. "Well... this her?" He asked, glancing over to Rikka.

"Dad... she's not my girlfr-"

"Yes!" Rikka chimed in, reaching over to shake the man's hand. "I'm Rikka!"

"Shikaku." He said as he shook her hand.

"Ohh! Aren't they _CUTE_!!!?" The woman asked. "I'm Nara Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother." She said, shaking Rikka's hand. "So, how did you two meet?"

Before Shikamaru could attempt once again to say she wasn't his girlfriend, Rikka said, smiling; "Ino introduced us earlier today, then I nearly beat him at shogi..."

And _THIS_ got the Nara's attention as silence reigned over the room. They knew their son was a genius, and that as far as they knew, _NO ONE _beat him at shogi. "Well, it's dark out. You'll have to stay with us tonight." Yoshino said, to the dismay of the male Naras. "You can sleep with me while my husband takes the sofa." She added, smiling.

Rikka chuckled. "That works..."

"Have you eaten already?" Yoshino asked, when Rikka nodded, she continued; "Well, then... Go ahead and get ready for bed. There's extra toothbrushes and such in there if-"

"Nope!" Rikka said, holding up a small bag, containing a toothbrush and a few other hygiene products, some of which the Nara men wondered if she was even _old enough_ for.

As Rikka bound off to find the bathroom, Mrs. Nara sat down quietly, saying; "Smart girl... I like her."

At this, Shikaku had only one thing to say to his son: "Boy... _run_."

Before Shikamaru could comply, he was stopped by a glare from his mother. Both Nara men knew it; Shikamaru was fucked.

* * *

What's this? Some connection between Rikka and Hiashi? Hehee... 

The contents of Rikka's little bag (note: It's one of those little mesh-looking bags with a pull-string at the top made just _for_ things like this): A toothbrush, dental floss, skin cleanser/moisturizer, spare panties and a tampon (just in case) She came _well_ prepared.

Yes. We were planning Rikka/Shikamaru from the start. Damn all who disagree.

Daifu - Godfather

Saya - Sheath/Scabbard. Often thought of equal importance to the blade itself in several styles of sword combat. (Examples being Iaido and Battoujutsu)

Hagekitai - (Ha Edge (As in, sword edge) Gekitai Repulse/Repel) Basic counter technique. Reflects the kinetic energy of the attacker back upon himself, so long as the energy of the chakra used in the counter equals or exceeds the kinetic energy of the countered attack. If the chakra energy is less than the kinetic energy, the counter will have no effect, and it will be as nothing more than a simple block. (This is mostly used to repel attacks that cannot _be_ blocked, thus, if the counter fails, the person attacked will most likely die.)


	15. Past and Present

Lots of stuff in this chapter setting up the _biggest_ point in the story thus far. If it doesn't make much sense, wait until next chapter. (Where all the _big _stuff is) It probably will then.

Also, we changed the first level of the Shinzenbigan. (It's been edited into chapter 10) It's now simply a yellow iris. This is what you'd call an 'evolving plot'. A better backstory to the Shinzenbigan came up, and that required an alteration.

_

* * *

The woman woke around noon, rising slowly out of bed, rubbing her forehead. Yesterday had been hectic, to say the least. Escorting 'ambassadors' always was. Although she didn't mind this one all too much, as they were__ childhood friends. She didn't see much point to it, though... The rumors of a village in these mountains probably wasn't true, let alone the allegations that it was a _shinobi_ village. She slid out from under the covers of the raggedy bed she'd spent the night in, wondering why her companions had let her sleep in so late. She wasn't hurt _that_ badly. As she stood, and nearly faltered as she walked over to the mirror on the far side of the small room. _'Maybe I was hit harder than I thought...' _drifted through her mind as she ran her hand over the large bruise on her scalp. _'At least the swelling went down'_... After this, she reached over to pull on her various articles of clothing and other tools of her trade... The black padded shirt and pants, straight-blade sword strapped to her back, gray body armor and armguards, all of which left her shoulders and upper arms uncovered, showing off spiral tattoos on either arm. She took a moment to look herself over and make sure everything was secured properly before snatching up a white mask with light-blue marks on either cheek, its shape reminiscent of a mouse or rat, and secured it over her features. Not to say she needed to, her shoulder-length silver hair was rare enough that it made little sense to try and hide her identity._ wereshinobithat'Maybe I was hit harder than I thought...' 'At least the swelling went down' 

_Walking outside, she looked around the monastery, or rather, what was _supposed_ to be a monastery. It was probably better suited to be called a trading post... The last haven for anyone who wanted to climb into the ominous mountains beyond. Not many have returned from beyond the first few peaks, only about three miles away, and none that have gone attempting to reach the peak have ever returned. This sanctuary was built to pray for and properly equip any who would make the attempt. Save only recently, when a woman came down from the peaks, the lone survivor of a band who decided to traverse the darkly tundra. They had no intention to reach the top, which is most likely why at least one of them survived, returning with tales of shadows and spirits reminiscent of shinobi, and a village that took her in to mend her wounds before sending her on her way. It was their mission to escort a certain woman to this village, and see whatever there was to see of it, befriending the people there if possible. She walked around to a nearby stream, to see another ANBU woman overlooking the water, where their charge was playing with a small girl atop the current. An amazing feat for a child, especially one of only five years old._

_She knew her friend well enough that her face was stricken with concern behind the tiger mask she wore. "Don't worry..." She said, walking up beside her. "He'll be back soon..."_

_The woman glanced over from beneath her mask, never unfolding her arms, she returned her gaze to the pair on the water. Her violet hair was short and spiked back, coupled with the fact that her bust and hips were small for a woman her age, she could easily be mistaken for a man while she was wearing her mask. "I think you're putting too much faith in that husband of yours, Keiri..." The woman said._

_"Momma!" The girl yelled, running up to the silver-haired woman who'd just arrived._

_"Hi honey!" Keiri said, scooping the girl out of the air as she jumped toward her._

_"I still think it was a bad idea to bring her along..." The tiger-masked woman said._

_"You worry too much Enya..." Their charge said, walking to shore. "It's not like we're going anywhere dangerous..." She was nothing short of elegant. Flowing tan garments adorning her flawless figure, long raven hair reaching down her back, and a complexion that perfectly complimented her pale lavender eyes._

_"You're just excited to be out and about after being cooped up for nearly a year... How could you two stand being pregnant?" Enya asked._

_"You should try it sometime, if you ever find a man who's as much of a stick-in-the-mud as you..." Keiri said, giggling._

_"Stick-in-the-mud Hakubo!" The girl said, laughing in her mother's embrace._

_"You being a pain again?" A dog-masked man said, appearing behind Enya._

_"Daddy!" The girl yelled._

_"Hey Rikka..." The man said, ruffling the girl's hair. "Besides, she's already saved her mother's life once, right?"_

_Enya couldn't deny this truth. "You're just lucky she's psychic..." She said, referring to yesterday's encounter with unknown combatants. In fact, the blurs didn't seem interested in them at all, but blurs they were nonetheless. If Rikka hadn't called out for her mother, she wouldn't've reacted in time and they'd've run right through her._

_"Heh... you know she's not psychic..." Keiri said._

_"She knows things she shouldn't. That's close enough for me." Enya continued._

_"In any case..." Their charge said, "We need to get going soon, granted there _IS _a village up there..." She added, turning to Rikka's father._

_"Yeah... it's up there. It's kinda' surprising though... I didn't have any problem getting there." He answered._

_"Daibo!" The girl yelled, reaching her arms out to their Hyuuga charge, who gracefully took the child in her arms._

_"Well, we should go." Keiri said sternly, dashing off into the mountains. Her husband, Enya, their charge and two other hidden ANBU following close behind her._

_Soon, they reached their destination, what looked like a fortress in a low valley. When they reached the open gates, they saw hundreds of people. All manner and color, all grouped together. "Greetings..." A pale older woman said, walking up to them. "Welcome to Tanimagakure... Please take care of any business you have here, and leave."_

_"Why?" The ambassador asked._

_"Because... it is not safe for outsiders here..." She said, paused, and continued. "Beyond here, there are two other villages. Neither will welcome guests... And neither will allow the _other_ to welcome guests."_

_"Maybe Hiashi-sama was right, and you _should_ have stayed at home." Enya said bluntly._

_"But why?" The Hyuuga woman asked again, paying little heed to her friend's words, listening instead to the old woman..._

_"Because there is war beyond these walls..."_

---

Rikka's eyes fluttered open, Yoshino's sleeping features greeting her. As she lay there, she felt tears welling up in her eyes, and soaking into her pillow. _What does it matter_... She thought. _they're all dead..._ Soon, she was back to sleep, nuzzling up against Yoshino with sad whispers on her lips. "...Mommy..."

Yoshino smiled, and wrapped her arm around the young girl. If she wanted a mother, she had one now.

---

Soon, days turned to weeks, as the trio settled into a routine. Kayuu trained and went on missions with Team Gai, filling in as the third Genin while Lee was in the hospital, Ateshi trained with Hatenshi under Sanken, and Rikka spent more and more time with the Naras. They soon let her claim the guest room as her own, as she spent the night four days out of the week. This was, as Yoshino put it, '_Until she started sleeping with Shikamaru, at least._' Much to the boy's dismay, his mother seemed all too fond of their 'blossoming' relationship.

Eventually, it was five days until the main matches, and Naruto was back in town on 'business'. Meaning he had no idea why he was back in town, but his new sensei told him to. This gave Rikka the chance she'd been waiting nearly a month for... "You're Jiraiya, right? The perverted toad Sannin, and author of the Icha Icha books?" She asked as the man sent Naruto over to talk to Sakura.

"Yeah... so? Hey... aren't you a little young to know all that?" Jiraiya asked.

"Nope... just thinking about something... You know, there's this Hyuuga girl in the hospital..." Rikka started, and as Sakura pummeled Naruto, the conversation continued. By the time the pink-haired-banshee had stormed off, Rikka and Jiraiya were both giggling maniacally, a perverted grin on both their faces.

"Oi! Naruto!" Jiraiya said as he walked back over to his student. "I heard you had some friends in the hospital... we should go see them before we leave." Naruto nodded his okay, and they walked off down the street.

Rikka chuckled to herself. _This is going to be good_...

---

The next day, Kayuu was getting back from a C-rank mission with Team Gai, Ateshi was training again, and Rikka was off where no one could find her. Surprisingly, Shikamaru was actually starting to get used to having her around. The day seemed all too quiet to him. This had the Nara boy worried as he went to meet his team.

Ateshi had summoned Kyo to help with training, as well as just to see his friend again, since it _had_ been a while. They were used to him being summoned about once a week now. It was around noon that Kyo heard loud crashing noises in the distance, along with what seemed like a familiar voice carrying on the wind. Running to investigate in his human form, he found that Naruto, to his sheer awe, had managed to summon Gamabunta. Needless to say, he was having a _damn_ difficult time controlling the massive toad. So, the fox decided to intervene. "HOY! Gama!!!" He yelled, landing atop the toad boss' nose.

"And who the hell are _you_?" Gamabunta asked angrily, a ragged Naruto still hanging onto the toad like a lifeline.

"You don't recognize me? ...huh." The fox said, and in a massive puff of smoke, was back to his normal form, Gamabunta's nose having just enough room to keep him from slipping off. "Recognize me now?"

"...Gizensha's boy?" Gamabunta asked.

"Kyotoshi! I'm head of the clan now!" Kyo said.

"...I thought your brother was older?"

"Tch... doesn't matter." Kyo said. "So, whatcha' up to?"

"Teachin' this boy a lesson. He's not even worth my time..."

"I dunno... I kinda like the kid... he's strong. He summon you?"

"So he claims..."

"I don't doubt he could. Give the boy a break, eh?" Kyo said, jumping down to the ground.

"All right..." Gamabunta said. "I'll let the boy off the hook for now, since he has the favor of the head of the Fox clan... Next time I see the brat, I'm not going to be nice about it though." He added, before disappearing in a massive plume of smoke. Kyo was just in time to catch Naruto as he fell.

"Di' I win?" He asked, Nearly passed out.

"Uhh... sure kid." Kyo replied, before heading off to the hospital. Naruto was asleep halfway there.

* * *

I bet you can't guess who the Hyuuga woman in Rikka's dream is. (Okay, you'd kinda be stupid _not_ to figure it out...) The reason those three are so close is because they were the members of the _only_ all-female Genin squad in the History of Konoha. 

The ANBU masks are based on the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac, thus, I had twelve different animals to choose from, and Rikka's mom just felt like a 'mouse' to me... so I went with rat.

Oh, and, no. Rikka isn't psychic. She's just got a better sense of 'OMG SOMEONE'S GONNA KILL ME', and is slightly empathic. In short, She can tell what kind of person you are just by being in the same room with you, and she can sense danger, but aside from that she's a normal girl. (These things play a big part in the NaruHina-ness, so bear with them)

Also, if you look back to chapter 1, Rikka is found huddled in the ruins of a rather large building, this in fact being her _orphanage._

And, just to clarify, YES. Rikka _is_ from Konoha, and merely _lived_ in Tanima for most of her life.

Keiri - (Kei Thorn/Whip, Ri Clever) Roughly meaning 'Clever Thorn'.

Enya - (En Fate/Destiny, Ya Arrow) 'Arrow of Fate' if you're a little creative...

Hakubo - Aunt (As in your parents sister, although Enya isn't _really_ her aunt. She just calls her that)

Daibo - Godmother

Gizensha - 'Hypocrite' or 'Fox in a Lamb's Skin' (Think 'wolf in sheep's clothing')


	16. Rikka's Trap

Rikka was up at dawn. She had plans for today... After 'suggesting' that Kayuu and Ateshi take the day off, she went on her way to gather the girls for their 'girls day'. Ino was simple enough to find, she simply went to Yamanaka flowers and picked her up. Then came Tenten, who was also easy enough to find, given that Rikka knew where her family's shop was too. Then it got complicated...

"No way in fucking hell..." Temari scoffed, barring the door of the hotel room her and her brothers were staying in.

"Come oooooon..." Rikka whined.

"It'll be fun!" Ino said.

"If this is about the prelims... there's no hard feelings..." Tenten added.

"No... it's not that... just... why the hell do you want _me_ to come along!?" Temari asked, nearly shouting.

"Well... it's a girls day... and you're a girl... so... we just want you to come, okay?" Rikka asked. "It'll be more fun with you there! Trust me!"

"Why are you so _insistent_!?" Temari asked angrily.

"You'll see when we get there!!!" Rikka said, her voice brimming with excitement.

"Ugh... _OKAY_. I'll go." Temari said finally. "Kankuro, watch Gaara for me?"

With a grunt from her painted younger brother, Temari stepped out and closed the door. "Now, where to?"

"We need to pick up _one more_ friend..." Rikka said, smiling.

---

"NO!" The nurse said firmly. "You _CANNOT_ take Hinata-sama anywhere! Her condition is far too critical!"

"But we're going to an onsen for a girls day out..." Rikka said. "It's been proven that in some cases, soaking in a hot bath, like an onsen, can often _improve_ the condition of most internal wounds!"

"You see, the trip may even be _beneficial_ to her!" Ino chimed in.

"Come on! She'll have all of us to look after her..." Tenten said.

"And I've even had medical training!" Rikka added. "You've seen me helping out around here, haven't you? I just recently passed my field medic test!"

"Well... okay... but we're signing her under your care!" The nurse said, finally.

As they pushed Hinata into the waiting room in a wheelchair, Rikka signed the release forms, while Ino and Tenten helped her out of the chair. "T-th-thank you..." Hinata stuttered. "I... I think I can s-stand on my own..."

"You feel up for a good soak?" Rikka asked playfully, taking Hinata's hand.

"I-I guess so..." Hinata said softly.

The five girls ran outside, then dashed away after Rikka, who was still holding Hinata's hand. After a long while, given the slow speed at which they ran for Hinata's benefit, they reached a somewhat old, yet highly up-kept wooden building. The four girls walking after Rikka looked over to the signs on the front. There were three of them; one which read 'PRIVATE' covering what appeared to be the 'open/closed' sign and the name of the place. "Well, come on! I didn't have this whole place _reserved_ for nothing, did I?"

At this, the girls saw no choice but to indulge themselves. Walking into the main hall, there was a female attendant at the counter. She bowed to the five new customers, and led them past an odd board blocking what they assumed to be a restroom or something to the right, and entered the left hall. They all quickly undressed, and stored their things away, almost haphazardly, seeing as they were going to be the only people here today. Each wrapped themselves with one of the towels provided by the onsen, a stack of folded towels on either side of the door. Before long, all five of them had passed into the main bath. To their surprise, they weren't alone.

In an instant, nine of the ten faces flushed red, as Rikka acted as if the five boys were supposed to be here from the start... "RIKKA!" Ateshi yelled. "So _this_ is why you told us to come here! Dammit!!!" The boys were arranged, apparently, by their volume. From left to right; Naruto, Ateshi, Hatenshi, Kayuu and Shikamaru.

"So, any reason you had us get these three?" Kayuu asked, in a tone that noted he already knew the answer.

"Oh, no reason really..." Rikka said, provocatively. "So, girls... how about we join them?"

At this, even _she _started to blush. Everyone's faces lit up into a crimson fit hearing this, except of course for Hinata, who fainted. "_Ojou-neesan!_" Hatenshi yelled, and was trying to jump out of the water to catch her when Ateshi and Kayuu stopped him.

"HOY!" Ateshi yelled, "Keep yer' man-bits in the water!" At this, everyone in the room flushed red after he'd realized just what he said.

Temari and Tenten caught Hinata before she'd hit the ground, and Rikka grabbed her feet and said; "Let's get her in the water... might as well, eh?" And with that, Hinata's feet were handed down to Hatenshi, who helped to slide her carefully into the water. "Now, if you don't mind..."

Before anyone could react, Rikka had undone her towel, and let it fall to the floor. It was surprising to see that although all five of the boys flushed red, Shikamaru was by far the least flustered by the girl's nudity before she slipped into the somewhat murky mineral water. "You know..." Ateshi started, his tone curious. "You're pretty calm for someone who just saw his girlfriend _naked_..."

Shikamaru sighed. "You're assuming this is the first time I've _seen_ her naked." To the shock of the other boys there. Seeing their expressions, he continued. "My mother can be quite... overzealous... in her attempts to further our relationship." This didn't serve to compose the others by any means, but nevertheless, he didn't bother to say anything else.

"You can come in you know..." Rikka said to the other girls. "If you're worried about being _naked_, you can get in the water _with_ your towels you know... they've got more you can dry off with..." At this, Tenten and Temari walked down into the water via steps on either side of the large pool. Hinata was still sheathed in cloth, while Ino...

Ino was completely and utterly dumbstruck. She'd _just_ come to terms with the fact that she was a lesbian, only to find that the woman of her dreams (_literally_) was a man. No one in the month Ino'd been fantasizing about and otherwise watching Hatenshi had _ever_ bothered to inform her of her love's gender. "You're... a man." She finally said, her voice timid and wavering.

"Well... yeah." Hatenshi said. "No one told you? I mean... you never said a word to me..."

Within moments, Ino had walked into the water, passed over onto the same side as Hatenshi and the other men, and slapped him with as much force as she could before locking her lips to his. This, of course, shocked everyone there.

Except Rikka. "Uhh... I'd stop that if I were you..." The young girl who'd led them to this predicament said.

"Why?" Ino asked, having just released an _intensely_ dazed Hatenshi from her grip before letting out what could best be described as a sharp _squeak_, and instantly flying back over to the side with the other girls.

"I think you just _found out_ why." Rikka said, Hatenshi and Ino both an unparalleled shade of crimson. _Almost_ inaudibly, she added; "_You start kissing a man like THAT and he's BOUND to get hard..._" Ino sank down into the water, trying to hide her face as she contemplated if what just transpired counted as _losing her virginity_ or not.

The girl soon decided _not_, just in time for Kayuu to break the ice by asking; "So you _ARE_ a natural blonde..." while glancing provocatively at Temari.

The sand kunoichi, along with the other three girls who were without towels in the water, blushed while covering themselves and looking over at Kayuu, who's eyes were nearly _glowing_ bright orange. Temari decided to take it in stride, and answered; "Yes, I am."

"Turn those damn things off." Ateshi said as, in an instant, he was standing between Kayuu and the women in the waist-deep water.

Kayuu screamed as if his retinas were covered in acid. "_OKAY!!! Just keep your dick where I can't see it!!!_" Ateshi glanced down, seeing that everything... _private_... was still under the murky water, and smirked as he realized Kayuu had seen _through_ the water.

"Just don't try that again, and you won't have to." Ateshi said, his voice brimming with pride before he felt a cold hand on his back. Every muscle in his body stiffened as he made a noise similar to the one Ino had made earlier. He turned his head as far as his locked joints would allow to see that Tenten was running her hand down his back with her right hand, while efficiently covering both her breasts with her left arm.

"How... when did you get this tattoo?" Tenten asked. This caused Ateshi's face to flood with horror for some reason, as he shot downward at a speed which dwarfed the pull of gravity. He was completely submerged for roughly two seconds before raising enough of his head out of the water to breathe through his nose. He was quite terrified when he saw Tenten's face curl in a lecherous smirk as she lowered herself into the water also, moved closer to him, and wrapped her arms around him. "Why won't you tell me?" She asked. The previous display alone had nearly caused the blood vessels in the boy's faces to burst, but Naruto and Shikamaru _looked away_ for what happened next... She draped her arms over his shoulders and pushed her tongue between his lips.

After a good five seconds of having her way with him, she backed away and left him to twitch. _My first kiss_... he thought, looking over to the girl... no, _woman_ who'd left him in this state. _No 'girl' could do THAT... right_?

Rikka began to chuckle maliciously. "You really know how to liven up a party Tenten!" She said before practically swimming over to sit next to Shikamaru.

The calm Nara boy had only one thing to say about what he _knew_ she was going to try next... "_NO_." Rikka simply started pouting before snuggling into his shoulder.

It soon became obvious to Temari just what the girl who brought her here was doing... _She's pairing us off!!!_ She thought. Since she had absolutely _NO_ interest in the Uzumaki boy, she assumed she was here for the pale pervert. She sighed... _I do like him... but that doesn't matter._ Or at least, it _didn't_, until she found that the boy was gone from where he was sitting, and was now _right next to her_!

Temari glanced at Kayuu quizzically, and saw the boy was _leering_ at her. She sighed, frowned, and shook her head. Rikka was watching from the other side of the pool, thinking; _BULLSHIT! Those two are PERFECT for each other! _After watching about five seconds of the two across from her beginning to _mope_, Rikka sprang into action in the only way she would allow herself in this delicate situation... "_KISS THE BITCH YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!!!_"

This, of course, halted _everything_ in the onsen. The woman at the counter was glancing in to see if everything was okay... Even Hinata began to stir, and every set of eyes save hers was on Rikka. Then shifted to Temari and Kayuu, who were looking at each other. As if by some miracle, they were spared taking action by the sound of Hinata gurgling under the water. Apparently, she'd woken up and stayed conscious long enough to realize that she and Naruto were both naked three feet from each other.

Everyone save Temari, Kayuu, Rikka and Shikamaru jumped to Hinata's rescue. No one seemed to care they were naked, or that Hinata's towel slipped off when they pulled her out, and it didn't matter since they all covered themselves as fast as they could once they _did_ realize others might see them. But, that barely mattered to the four still in the pool. Shikamaru was just too lazy to get up seeing that more than half of them had gone to help the girl. Rikka was content pressing herself against Shikamaru, waiting in vain for him to pull some lecherous stunt. And neither would admit it, staring up at the ceiling with a slight smirk on their faces, but both Temari and Kayuu were as happy as they could be right now, hands laced together beneath the murky water.

* * *

YAY PAIRINGS!!! Now you finally get a look at _most_ of the pairings we've already got planned out in the fic. I told you this'd be a big chapter. Anyway, now we've got pairings, most of them between _KIDS_... Now to see just how long it'll be before they get _ADULT_ about it... kekeke... (Yes, I've decided there's going to be lemons later on)

Onsen - A Japanese public bath. There are many different kinds of onsen, from open-air hot springs, to indoor artificial springs, and even today you can still find a mixed bath every so often if you look hard enough. And, yes. _Quite_ a few onsen use mineral water, to simulate the same kind of water found in a natural spring. (Which is, actually, full of quite a few minerals)

Ojou-Neesan - Ojousan/Ojousama meaning 'daughter or sister of someone with great political power', ojou-neesan would mean 'sister who is the daughter of someone powerful' or some such nonsense. Hatenshi thinks of Hinata like a younger sister.


	17. A Tenacious Quagmire

'A tenacious quagmire' is like saying 'a sticky situation' or 'a persistant problem' but with bigger words, and a lot more meaning behind it. Basically; 'a _REALLY_ sticky situation' or 'a _VERY_ persistant problem'.

* * *

Ateshi woke the next morning to a peculiar feeling... His arms and legs were intertwined with a warm body. His eyes shot open immediately to see Tenten smiling at him. "Good morning." She said in a cheerfully seductive tone.

Ateshi launched himself to the far wall. "WHA... I MEA... HOW DID YOU... WHAT DID WE... _WE HAD SEX, DIDN'T WE!?_"

Tenten merely laughed, almost maniacally. In fact, it was quite maniacal... "Ohhhhhohoho no we didn't. I just got here an hour ago! I thought I'd surprise you!" She stood up and walked over to him, hands laced behind her back as she struck an '_innocent_' pose. "Are you really that disappointed you're still a _virgin_?" She chuckled. "I mean... being the _oldest virgin from your village_ must be tough, huh?" She slowly pressed herself up against him, effectively pinning him to the wall. "I suppose I _could_ help you with that... if you wanted..." She reached down, her hand slipping between his underwear and his pants. "And it _does_ seem like you _want me to_..."

She stretched herself up to lock her lips to his while retaining her hold on... _certain parts_ of his body, when the door was swiftly opened, and another Tenten ran into the room. "_Good morning Ateshi-kuuun_!!!" She yelled, before seeing the scene that was playing out in front of her. "Okay, bitch, who the hell are _you_!?" She yelled, drawing a pair of Kunai from behind her back.

The 'Tenten' Ateshi woke up with disappeared in a cloud of smoke, and a familiar form was left in her wake. "You just _had_ to ruin my fun, didn't you Ten-Chan?" Rikka asked, walking by Tenten while still smiling in her same cheerfully sadistic way as she made her way towards Kayuu's room.

Ateshi fell to his knees, and leaned back against the wall. Tenten walked over to him swiftly, giving herself the time she needed to stash her kunai back in their proper place. "Ateshi, are you alright?" She asked.

"...I was just violated by my _roommate_... who I thought was my _girlfriend_..." Ateshi muttered.

"Hey... Who ever said I was your _girlfriend_?" Tenten asked, her tone quite harsh.

Ateshi looked up at her, almost as if he were about to burst into tears. "But... Tenten... last night..."

"I'm kidding." She said, kneeling down as she pressed her lips to his. "So, what're you doing today?"

Ateshi smiled as the two of them prepared to leave the apartment.

---

"Rikka, what are you doing?" Kayuu asked as Rikka, Henge'd to look like Temari, began to crawl all over him in a very suggestive manner.

"Huh? How'd you know it was me?" She asked, confused, reverting to her own form in a puff of smoke.

"These eyes of mine aren't just for show," he said with a very disgruntled look on his face, "I can see through Henge with them." At this, Rikka pouted.

"Well how am I supposed to find out where your _secret stash_ is now?" Rikka asked, her bottom lip sticking out comically. Kayuu reached somewhere Rikka couldn't see-the room _was_ pitch black, after all-and deposited a box into her hands.

"All you had to do was ask, imouto." Kayuu said brightly with a smile on his face. Rikka looked shocked for a moment, then a small smile crept across her face as she began to leave.

"I'll remember that." Was the last thing she said before she closed his door, letting him return to the book she had distracted him from.

---

Tenten and Ateshi were walking down the main roads, having decided to spend the day together, they were looking for a good restaurant to eat breakfast at. Along the way, Tenten decided to ask the most embarrassing question available to her at the time. "Are you _really_ a virgin?"

Not only did this stop _Ateshi_ in his tracks, but it did the same to three shinobi and a good ten civilians who were now listening _intently_ to what his answer would be. When he gave none, she continued; "I overheard a bit of the conversation you had with your _ex-girlfriend_." She said, chuckling.

Ateshi, however, cringed when Tenten referred to Rikka as his 'ex-girlfriend'. "Please don't call her that..." He asked. Tenten was obviously about to speak, most likely to ask 'why', but Ateshi wasn't going to let her. "She's gotten to be like a sister to me... and nearly having... _intimate relations_ with your sister is bad enough without being _reminded _of it."

"Oh... sorry." Tenten muttered.

"No, don't worry about it." Ateshi said. "Just... don't say it again... Please?"

Tenten nodded in agreement and laced her left hand with his right. "Okay. I promise."

"So..." Ateshi started, glancing down at their laced fingers. "Does this count as our first date? I mean... I haven't won the bet yet..."

"Hey... The bet just says we go on a date if you win... it never said it had to be our _first_ date..." Tenten said.

"The bet also said I could never talk to you again if I lost..." Ateshi said solemnly.

"So? I don't care if you break our deal." She chuckled.

Ateshi, however, didn't find it funny in the least. Stopping where he was, he stared at the ground, and his entire body tensed. _A samurai NEVER goes back on his word._ The phrase drilled into his mind for over a decade echoed in his mind. "A samurai never goes back on his word... a samurai never allows any wrong... a samurai never abandons his kin..." Ateshi recited the motto of the Kensukai clan in a dreary daze. "No, Tenten. I have to win."

The tone in his voice honestly frightened Tenten... She'd _never_ heard anyone speak like that... With such solemn sadness and truth to their tone. "Ateshi..."

"This may be the last week we can spend together..." He said, in the same depressing tone, before a joyous facade claimed his features and he added; "So let's have fun, okay?"

Tears were streaming down the young girl's cheeks as she tightly embraced the boy she was starting to love. It was definitely _not_ okay.

---

Kayuu was was rather disgruntled as he arrived for the day's training, and his 'team' knew it. Team Gai, minus Tenten and Lee, was gathered at training area eight. "KAYUU! The look upon your face depicts you are feeling _EXTREMELY UNYOUTHFUL_!!!!!!! Is there anything you wish to tell your _youthful_ sensei?"

Kayuu took this as his chance to try and break _this freak's_ mind, and smirked. "My roommate nearly seduced me today while under a Henge of my girlfriend, and probably would have succeeded had I not managed to see through it in time, all just to see where I kept certain items I would rather not mention..." He said, without ever stuttering or emphasizing. An impressive feat for someone in his emotional state. "Plus, she's only _twelve_, and already _has_ a boyfriend."

For once, Maito Gai was speechless. Neji looked like his jaw was about to snap off, and- "You were practice." -Asuma was sitting in a tree branch above them, contemplating whether he should eat an apple he found, or light up another cigarette.

Looking up at the Sarutobi who'd just spoken, Kayuu asked; "What the hell are you talking about?"

"What she did. It's standard training for a kunoichi. Take the place of the lover of your target, place them in the most vulnerable position possible, namely coitus, and strike a killing blow." Asuma explained, his tone more rigid and cold than usual, indicating it'd probably happened to _him_ before. "She probably got the idea from Anko or Kurenai..." He said, a lit cigarette in the corner of his mouth while he bit away at an apple slice. "They've both done it before."

"You're so knowledgeable..." Kayuu said. "It makes me think I really _should_ give a fuck..."

"Hey... think on this for a while... guys can do it too." Asuma said, and with those last five words, horrible, horrible images flashed through the minds of the three present. "Just remember to have their penis out of there before you turn back... I've heard it's... not pretty."

"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" Kayuu asked while grating his teeth together. "That's not a nice thing to say in front of a kid..." He added, implying Neji.

"_SUCH UNYOUTHFUL IMPLICATIONS!!!_" Gai yelled, apparently just as disturbed as Kayuu and Neji.

"Hey, I'm just sayin' what I know." Asuma said, shrugging before he made a seal and disappeared using the Shunshin no Jutsu.

_Soooo wrong..._ Kayuu thought, and decided he needed to do _ANYTHING_ to get his mind off of it, as apparently did Gai and Neji, as they were already gone.

---

Rikka was walking down the roads to the Nara property, whistling happily as she went. She had _exactly _what she was looking for. Upon entering the Nara home, and seeing that neither of Shikamaru's parents were home (Shikaku _IS_ a Jounin after all, thus most likely on a mission, and today _was _Yoshino's weekly run to the market) and immediately headed off to her self-proclaimed boyfriend's room, to see him lazily staring into a book. "_Ohh Shikamaaaaaaruuuu!!!_"She called, causing him to sigh and look over towards her, a look of 'how troublesome' on his face, which was instantly washed away by what was in her hands.

Condoms. "Oh _HELL_ no." Shikamaru said immediately, returning to his book.

"I did _not_ go through _ALL THAT_ to find Kayuu's _SECRET STASH_ just to have you _TURN ME DOWN!!!_" She yelled, ripping the book away from him. "OFF WITH THE PANTS!!!"

(The author believes you don't even _WANT _to know how twelve-year-olds bang. _MOVING ON._) ---

While at the Hokage tower, as per Tenten's request, Ateshi was in the waiting room debating the finer points of single-target assassination jutsu versus mass-target ninjutsu with the ANBU guards while Tenten spoke to the Sandaime. "Do you know anything about it?" She asked.

Sarutobi sighed. "I think he was talking about a variation of the old _Samurai Code_ set down long before Konoha was founded, and then widely disregarded soon after the founding of most of the hidden villages."

"What does that mean?" Tenten asked, flustered.

"In truth, it means I'm not _entirely_ sure what to make of the situation, however, my immediate advice would either be to find a loophole in your current agreement and exploit it, or help train him so he doesn't lose the bet." Sarutobi explained.

"He said something about keeping oaths, writing wrongs, and staying with family..." Tenten said, and then inspiration struck. "Hokage-sama, there are copies of the law-books in the library, right?"

"Yes... there had better be." Sarutobi chuckled.

As Tenten left the office, she turned back and said; "Thank you Sandaime-sama!"

---

Kayuu's day was looking a _lot_ better already. He got to train, _AND_ kick Sasuke's ass. "_NO_! Your form is all wrong!" Kakashi said firmly, much to Kayuu's disbelief. "Whenever you fight in close-combat, you want to keep your enemy on the _defensive_! Who's been teaching you all this?"

Kayuu stopped for a moment and said, bluntly; "_Gai-sensei_."

Kakashi sighed. "His fighting style only works because he's mastered more than a _dozen_ taijutsu styles... He can make up for the disadvantages of a counterattack-based fighting style..."

"Lee seems to do alright..." Kayuu added.

"Because he's twice as fast as you." Kakashi retorted.

"So, what about the Chidori training?" Sasuke asked. "Why can't we get back to that?"

Kakashi sighed again. "As much as I hate to admit it, Kayuu is _stronger_ than me, at least physically. Training against him should increase the rate at which you increase your speed and strength."

"So I could beat _you _then..." Kayuu said smugly.

"You have more raw strength than I do, but you have nowhere _near_ the control of the strength you _do_ have that I possess." Kakashi retorted, once again reasserting his role as the sensei.

---

Tenten and Ateshi decided that the rest of the day would be better spent apart. Ateshi could train while Tenten did research on a way to keep her boyfriend if Neji happened to make Chuunin and Ateshi didn't. She was up most of the night looking for what she wanted to find, _Marriage Laws_. Somewhere in these books, there was a way to keep him for the few years until they were _ready_ to be married, she just _knew_ it...

Unfortunately, she fell asleep before she could _find_ it.

---

That night, both Ateshi and Kayuu made sure to find ways to lock their doors. Even if they weren't built with locks. Ateshi didn't want to lose his boyhood to his 'little sister', and Kayuu never wanted Rikka trying to get into his bed again.

They were lucky though, as Rikka wasn't going to be home that night...

---

When Yoshino finally got back home, she found Rikka sitting in the living room, with quite a bit of explaining to do. Particularly why Shikamaru was passed out cold, and why there were so many used condoms in the garbage. "OOOHHH!!! My little Rikka made my Shikamaru a man!" She said, tightly embracing the young girl.

Shikaku was a different matter however. He felt sorry for his son. This girl obviously had far too much stamina for him. Surprisingly though, neither was angry that their twelve year old 'children' had just spent the day having sex...

* * *

If a Kensukai makes an oath, _NOTHING _can keep them from upholding it. (This plays a _BIG_ part in the fic later on...) The motto goes in order of most important. A Kensukai never allows any wrong unless it goes against an oath they've taken, and they never abandon their kin unless it enacts a wrong, or goes against an oath they've taken. This is _usually_ drilled into their lifestyle from_ BIRTH._ They really _can't_ go against it. It's a part of who they are. If something happened, like, say... the Hokage ordering Ateshi to go against a promise he's made, it'd probably just _break his brain_. (Having taken an oath to follow the Hokage's orders and such) 

P.S. - Kakashi's full of shit. In reality, Kayuu's using a pretty impressive style, and Kakashi just doesn't understand it, since Kayuu's holding back while fighting Sasuke.

NOTE: Two more days until finals.

Imouto - little sister

Coitus - Technical term for when there's a penis in your vagina. (I'm pretty sure it's Latin)


End file.
